The impending war on the bloggers came a step closer in the corporate theatre today when a California judge ruled that bloggers should not have any protections enjoyed by the press:

The tentative ruling serves as an early indication of which way the court is leaning and is not the final ruling, Annalee Newitz, EFF policy analyst, told the BBC News website.

"What's at stake here is whether online and independent journalists will be granted the same rights as ones from traditional media," Ms Newitz said.

She added that if the court's final decision stood, it would mean net service providers would be obliged to hand over bloggers' details in future legal cases.

"Given that so many journalists correspond with their sources via e-mail, this would severely undermine those journalists' abilities to guarantee their sources any kind of confidentiality," she said.

Over four months, Apple has filed against PowerPage, Apple Insider and Think Secret to find out how the websites obtained details of unreleased products, code-named Asteroid and Q97.

So who are these horrible people that Apple is seeking to silence? PowerPage has been an Apple booster site, with rumors and tips for the avid Apple lovers. Say the Online Journalism Review:

Perhaps the most surprising element of the legal threats was that they were against some of Apple's most ardent supporters and buzz-builders. All three news sites have been around long before the iPod, and have helped whip Apple fanatics into a frenzy, speculating on just what Apple will surprise and delight them with next.

"The shine has definitely come off the Apple," said Jason O'Grady, editor at PowerPage.org. "If Apple has a problem with their house, if they have a leak in their house, they need to fix it. It's a bad move to sue [journalists] in this way, because it's a bad PR move, and it's tipping their hand that the product exists."

Apple Insider is a news aggregator site, mostly, with forums and hot tips on what's new and exciting in the world of Apple.

Think Secret is the site of a 19-year-old Harvard geek. Wired reports that in January he was looking for a free lawyer:

The 19-year-old publisher of a website facing a lawsuit over an article about a top-secret $500 Apple computer said Friday he can't afford to defend himself.

Apple Computer is suing Harvard University student Nicholas Ciarelli's website, Think Secret, alleging it illegally published company trade secrets. The Jan. 4 lawsuit also targets the website's unnamed sources for the leaks.

Ciarelli, whose identity as the site's publisher and editor was only revealed this week, is not named as a defendant. But he still needs a lawyer, and said he is hoping to find free or low-cost legal help to argue that he deserves First Amendment protection and used proper news-gathering techniques to break news about the Mac mini computer and other inside information about Apple.

"A lot of lawyers are interested in my case, but few are able to do it for free or low cost," Ciarelli, of Cazenovia, New York, said in an e-mail interview. "I'm seeking representation."

He told the OJR:

"I use the same, legal news gathering techniques that any other reporter uses," said Nick Ciarelli, the 19-year-old Harvard student who runs ThinkSecret and is an editor at the Harvard Crimson. "It's worth noting that large publications and major newspapers frequently publish news scoops about Apple, but Apple has never sued any of them, and is instead attempting to silence a small online publication."

So once again, in this age where the copyright owner has more political and legal clout than the copyright creator or the avid consumer, the corporations show a predisposition to treat their customers as the enemy.

OJR sums it up nicely.

About the most creative response Apple has had was a comment by Apple marketing executive Phil Schiller to the AP: "Innovation is what Apple is all about, and we want to continue to innovate and surprise and delight people with great products, so we have a right to protect our innovation and secrecy."

Call it the Right to Surprise and Delight. Just don't expect a rally to coalesce amongst Apple supporters, marching on Washington to demand the company get that right enshrined into the Constitution.

Meanwhile the government continues to lean on the citizenry who have the misfortune of saying something unpopular or unappreciated by corporate lawyers and politicos.

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