In a case where by Apple Computer wishes to obtain details of communications between unnamed sources that allegedly leaked information to several online news sites. On Friday the case took a major fall when the Judge agreed with lawyers that PowerPage and AppleInsider were protected under the First Amendment.

“Today’s decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large,” said Kurt Opsahl of EFF, “The court has upheld the strong protections for the free flow of information to the press, and from the press to the public.”

The EFF who is fighting for the two sites had previously said that online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as with their offline counterparts.

The court ruled that when a journalist publishes information that a company claims to be a trade secret, it voids any constitutional protections for the journalists confidential sources.

In closing Judge Conrad Rushing said, we can think of no workable test or principle that would distinguish ‘legitimate’ from ‘illegitimate’ news. Any attempt by courts to draw such a distinction would imperil a fundamental purpose of the First Amendment, which is to identify the best, most important, and most valuable ideas not by any sociological or economic formula, rule of law, or process of government, but through the rough and tumble competition of the memetic marketplace.”

Update – 12th July 2006 Today Apple decided that it would not fight the courts ruling which protected bloggers with the same rights as the press.