PowerPage's Jason O'Grady has Apple Suit Heard by CA Appeals Court

As most Mac users should know, last year Apple subpoenaed Jason O'Grady's email from his ISP in looking for the identity of the person who leaked information on Apple's "Asteroid" project to him and that he in turn posted the information on PowerPage. MacNN and AppleInsider are also parties to the case. Asteroid is alleged to be a breakout box for attaching instruments to a computer to record songs with Garageband or other audio applications.

The California District Court in a narrow ruling upheld Apple's subpoena because the leak was about a trade secret and not some nefarious activity by Apple that endangered the public in some way. We can see the benefits of this kind of interpretation. For example, if someone obtained our bank account number and PIN and some embecile published it on the internet as news causing us economic harm but serving no discernable public good, we would want to be able to find out the source. But, of course, every issue is different and there are questions as to the legitimacy of Apple's trade secret claim and any actual damages caused by publishing the information. Asteroid has never even seen the light of day in the public market.

The CA District Court decision skillfully avoided addressing the larger issue of whether an internet-based news site is real news site and, therefore, its news sources are protected by California law. Yesterday, the California Appeals Court heard O'Grady's appeal and heavily questioned Apple's attorneys. Several judges were more than snide in their questioning of Apple's attorneys according to some news reports.

We believe, of course, that O'Grady's PowerPage like Macs Only! is indeed a bonified news publisher and its sources for legitimate news are protected by California law. But we hope that the Appeals Court won't go there since the original decision did not. The case, we believe, truly turns on whether or not a leaked bonified trade secret falls under the source protection afforded by California law. At the federal level, we have seen in recent cases, like the Valerie Plame spy ID leak, that the source of some news leaks do not receive federal protection and reporters are subject to prosecution and punishment if they fail to reveal their sources. Of course, the spy name leak case was a criminal investigation and the Asteroid leak case is a civil case. What will California's Appeals Court decide? Stay tuned. More... [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]