The whole point of the Mercury News article is that the Apple ruling will discourage whistle-blowers from coming forward if public safety concerns arise for a product. This is total BS. If Apple's prices and product details were a matter of public safety, then maybe this ruling would affect that. They are not, so this reporter is just spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt, and making Apple look like they are endangering the public. WTF?

"After a ruling that could limit the public's access to vital [trade secret] information, insiders may now be reluctant to leak that kind of information," says Mercury News in response to a ruling in Apple's case against three rumor sites

Not wanting to read the article (not before lunch), but is there a problem with the above statement? Hmm, insiders may be reluctant to leak trade secrets they've legally agreed not to leak. Wow, that does sound horrific!

And doesn't this just mean people who want to release such information just needs to do it in an anonymous way. You know, like sign up for a free Yahoo or Hotmail account with bad info, sign-up for one of those anonymous mail hosting sites oversees, or just drive around the community looking for an open wifi and email through that.

Ya just gotta love that the author of this little piece of news tripe doesn't even bother to have his name listed, there's no TalkBack section, and no Contact Us email address that I found quickly (it might be there, just didn't feel like digging for it).

I suppose this is just another check mark on the highly 'esteemed' profession of news reporting, if this author can't tell the difference between leaking secrets on something that could kill versus future product development plans.

I'd love to live in his world where every employee can just blab all the product development details of their company to a reporter and get off unpunished. Please someone, send an online 'journalist' the source code to Windows, and let him publish it, online. He can then shout the Free Speech Mantra, and MS won't be able to do jack about it.

Public Interest != Interested Public. Not sure I've ever heard a case summed up so nicely.

Funny how people rae getting into such a huge snit over what big bad Apple is doing. Oh my God the frickin sky is falling.

People need to get their priorities straight. While everyone sits and waves their collective fingers in a disapproving manner at Apple, no one seems to give a damn about how overly secretive our government has gotten. If people want to talk about information that is vital to the public, it's the decisions of our marginally elected leaders that affect our daily lives and refuse to give us the details under the false guise of national security. **Cough cough* d*** cheney **cough cough**

Mr. Cheney is sending over a black van to pick you up now. Please do not resist.

Yeah, its amazing how people aren't talking about the government when the topics in the news are Doom 3, Elemental Audio, Apple Legal, & Ask Jeeves... the nerve of some people...