Apple must pay $750,000 in online journalists' legal fees
East Bay Business Times
Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay the legal fees of online journalists after an unsuccessful attempt by the company to make them reveal sources of information used in stories.
Cupertino-based Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will have to pay more than $750,000 to lawyers who defended the journalists, according to reports Wednesday.
In his order earlier this month, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin E. McKenney wrote that the lawyers "succeeded in enforcing important rights affecting the public interest."
According to McKenney's ruling, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based privacy-rights group, will get $421,333 and two other lawyers will get $328,981.
Jason O'Grady of O'Grady's PowerPage Web site had posted information about an unreleased product in 2004, and Apple sued, claiming the information consisted of stolen trade secrets.
In May, a state appeals court held that just like traditional print reporters, online reporters are covered by the state's shield law and First Amendment rights.
