Online hacks get day in US court

THE Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that it will meet Apple's lawyers on March 4th in court to argue whether online journalists have the same rights of privilege as print journalists and can protect their sources.

As reported earlier, the EFF believes the online journalists are protected by the First Amendment and wants the court to issue a protective order confirming that.

Journalists for Apple Insider and Power Page face subpoenas from Steve Jobs' firm to reveal their sources for stories they've written. Apple has agreed to delay issuing the subpoenas until the case comes to court.

The EFF said that it will argue that reporters' privileges under the First Amendment also extend to email providers. Apple attemped to get Nfox.com to reveal one of the journalist's emails.

Common sense would dictate that if print and TV journalists are protected, so should online journalists. Print publishers are already panicking about the success of web pages compared to their offerings. There needn't be any arcane discussion about the difference between the kind of ink print titles use, and the pixellated ink journos use. Otherwise high faluting terms mere IT vendors use, such as convergence, are so much hot air. µ