This is my first political post ever on this site. But I have to get this off my chest, cause it is something I have been thinking about for a long time.

Let me start by saying I love Apple. Along with Sony, VW, and Nikon it is one of my favorite brands. Apple is as much a part of my day-to-day life as any product. But this story is beyond my understanding. Apple will argue in federal court that bloggers are not journalists and shouldn’t receive the same legal protection.

If you are not a geek like me, this whole court case stems from a lawsuit brought against the Apple news site PowerPage.org. Apple was upset that the site ran leaked details about a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand and they want the site to give them their source. They refused, so Apple they took legal action.

In my humble opinion there are four issues here, all of which Apple is wrong about. And our legal system better grasp these facts.

1. The legal issue here is with the Apple employee that leaked the information, not the site that ran the information. Just as the legal issue is with the CIA employee that leaked classified information to the New York Times and not the paper itself. Every citizen of his nation has a right to free speech. I can publish, write, and say whatever I want as long as I don’t slander or libel someone. Period, end of statement. If Apple wants to punish somebody for the leak, and that is their right, they have to gather that information themselves, not force via court action PowerPage to revile their source(s).

2. Is a blogger a journalist? It really doesn’t/shouldn’t matter. But I would argue that a blogger is as much of a journalist as a writer at the Washington Post or New York Times. The Internet has changed our media landscape. An average citizen like Josh at the Talking Points Memo can break news stories with no resources other then a computer, Internet access, and the desire to dig a little. One of the reasons the main stream media (MSM) are losing ground to blogs is they don’t grasp this concept. The only difference between myself and someone like Dana Priest at the Washington Post is I don’t work for a billion dollar company and I don’t have an editor.

3. This is a somewhat hard concept to explain. I call it "selective leaks." Both executives and government officials, off the record, leak information all the time that creates a "buzz" and benefits them in some manner. If you’re going to "pimp"’ the media for your own gain, don’t get upset when the media (and yes that includes me) prints something they don’t like.

4. First Amendment vs. Property Rights.

"The First Amendment cannot trump a property right," said Ian Ballon, an intellectual property attorney in the East Palo Alto, Calif., office of Greenberg Traurig.

As long as the courts agree that Apple is protecting a legitimate trade
secret, Ballon said, intellectual property should trump free speech
rights. "The law is certainly on Apple’s side on this issue," he said.