We are all journalists now
Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa and columnist/blogger, has a column in the Star about the lawsuit Apple just lost against several blogs that broke rumours of upcoming products. The court effectively ruled that the blogs were performing the same function as regular journalists and therefore were subject to the same protections:
From a media perspective, the emergence of citizen journalism has blurred the line separating mainstream media from online new media. Last month, a California appeals court took a major step toward eliminating any legal distinction in a case involving Apple Computer and two online news sites.
The two sites, Power Page and Apple Insider, published several articles in November 2004 about a rumoured new Apple product called Asteroid. Apple was incensed at the disclosures, and soon after sued the sites for disclosing information that it maintained constituted valuable trade secrets.
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