Groups working to protect journalists' press freedoms, the creator of a blog-search tool, weblog publishers, and more than a dozen individual online journalist/bloggers filed a friend-of-the-court brief (PDF) today in Apple v. Does -- the case in which Apple Computer is seeking to unmask online journalists' confidential sources for articles about forthcoming Apple products.
The amici urged the court to adopt "a functional test for the newsgatherers' privilege that does not discriminate between reporters, regardless of the medium in which they publish." They ask the court to "adopt a test that will not impede journalists' use of the Internet to report news by limiting their constitutional protections when they publish there."
The amici are (in alphabetical order)
- Jack M. Balkin
- The Center for Individual Freedom
- Julian Dibbell
- Feedster, Inc.
- The First Amendment Project
- A. Michael Froomkin
- Gawker Media, Inc.
- Gothamist, LLC,
- Groklaw
- Happy Mutants, LLC
- Ben Hammersley
- Joichi Ito
- Joel Johnson
- Kimberly A. Kralowec
- LawMeme
- Rebecca MacKinnon
- Joshua Micah Marshall
- The Media Bloggers Association
- Markos Moulitsas
- Reporters Without Borders
- Glenn Harlan Reynolds
- Peter Rojas
- Jay Rosen
- Scott Rosenberg
- Doc Searls
- Silicon Valley Watcher
- Kevin Sites
- Eugene Volokh
For full descriptions of the amici, see the application for leave to file the brief (PDF).
Previous amicus briefs in this case:
