Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Rebuttal
Author: Robert Cassidy Posted: 7/19/2000; 8:58:47 PM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 7/18/2000 Msg #: 18789 (In response to 18784) Prev/Next: 18788 / 18790
Under U.S.A. law, can "journalists" and/or "average people" be compelled to reveal information related to a criminal act?Yes, it's called withholding evidence and journalists are NOT protected, contrary to popular belief. However, as a matter of practice journalists are typically not pressed too strongly on this matter compared to other citizens because journalists do provide a service to this nation - both the citizens and the government alike, and need a bit of leeway for this to function. That's criminal behavior, however.
Civil cases don't require disclosure of any kind. No harm to society...
I'm assuming here (reasonably I hope) that this came out because someone breached their NDA contract.
Well, I honestly don't understand why Apple shut down Macintouch. I didn't see the content, but if it didn't involve copyrighted material, then it's pretty disturbing. AppleInsider I totally understand because the content there was copyrighted material. It wasn't theirs to disseminate.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/copyright.html
Under current law, works are covered whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the work is registered.
It doesn't much matter how or from whom the material was obtained, it's protected and Apple has the right to take their pound of flesh.
If the Macintouch material was a release against NDA, then there's not much that can be done. If it was an Apple employee, or obtained by other means, then corporate espionage might be able to be argued. That's a much bigger issue, and Apple might be in the right, but it's clearly a stretch. They'd have to argue some measure of intent, I think.
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