Apple Legal Documents Unsealed

MacNN reports that the Electronic Frontier Foundation won the right to unseal court documents related to Apple's investigation into the source of leaks for an unreleased product codenamed Asteroid.

Apple filed suit in December of 2004 and issued subpoenas to several sites which released information regarding the unreleased product.

The subpoena of enthusiast websites has been the focus of significant discussion and controversy. Much of the debate stems from the protection of such websites under journalistic claims.

The latest documents reportedly reveal that Apple did not conduct an exhaustive investigation prior to pursuing the subpoenas:

"This is a crucial issue in the case, which will be heard by the California Court of Appeal, because the First Amendment and the California Constitution require that Apple exhaust all other alternatives before trying to subpoena journalists.