Apple subpoenaed bloggers over reports that had been posted about a new Apple product claiming they weren’t entitled to First Amendment protections. (Say what? And why wouldn’t they be entitled such protections.)

Happily, the court sided with the journalists and told Apple to pay their court costs plus a 2.2 multiplier.

In a crucial, maybe landmark part of the decision

The Court upheld the rights of online journalists to protect their confidential sources and putting them on par with traditional print journalists. In its ruling, the appeals court said that bloggers and webmasters are no different in their protections than a reporter and editor for print publications.

This should serve as a warning to other companies who might also wish to shred freedom of the press to serve their short-term gain and greed. Why anyone thinks Apple is an enlightened company is beyond me. Recently there’s been options manipulations involving Jobs, a flaky product (the Macbook) that locks up randomly and their response primarily has been to stonewall, now this ugly attempt to curb constitutional freedoms. Yuck.

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