Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

As a blogger I was pleased to read today about the landmark ruling in favor of bloggers and cyber journalists, when a Santa Clara County Court defended the First Amendment rights of online journalists to protect their confidential sources, effectively giving web journalists the same protections afforded to traditional print journalists. Apple had issued subpoenas to bloggers, including the publisher of AppleInsider.com and PowerPage.org, because it claimed they had "violated California state trade secret law" by divulging confidential information about not-yet released products. Apple seemed to believe the bloggers were not entitled to the same First Amendment protections as print journalists. The court disagreed, ruling against Apple and ordering them to pay all legal costs including a 2.2 times multiplier of the fees, for a total of $700,000. Steve Job’s obsession with secrecy seems to be matched only by that of the White House, but as one of the defendants said… “Hopefully, Apple will think twice the next time it considers a campaign to bully the little guy into submission."

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