For background, Apple Computer, Inc. (Apple) brought an action in California Superior Court alleging the wrongful publication of Apple’s trade secret product information. Two Internet sites devoted to Apple products posted excerpts of technical specifications and other information relating to the product design.
Apple conducted an internal investigation, but could not identify the identity of persons responsible for disclosing the information to the news sites. Apple sought to obtain email information from the service providers of the news site publishers. The web site operators sought a protective order to prevent the service provider from handing over email information to Apple.
The Court held that the bloggers that operated the news sites were entitled to protect their confidential sources under the California reporter’s shield in the same manner as printed news publications.
The case differed from lawsuits where Internet service providers would be subpoenaed to disclose the identities of subscribers who posted anonymous messages on web sites. In this case, the sources did not post the information themselves. The bloggers received the information from the sources and then publicly disclosed the information.
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