CUPERTINO, CA: A popular blog receiving leaked information about Apple products has agreed to shut down in the wake of a company lawsuit, raising questions about whether bloggers should have the same rights as journalists.
The Web site, ThinkSecret.com, settled out of court with Apple, stipulating that it will shut down, but will not be forced to reveal its sources, as the company had requested.
Further details of the settlement, which came three years after the suit was originally filed, were unknown.
Neither Apple nor ThinkSecret.com's editor responded to requests for comment by press time.
Steve Rubel, Edelman SVP and a popular blogger, said that the suit and the resulting blog shutdown "underscores the need for [bloggers] to have more protection" legally, as regular journalists do.
Still, Rubel said that a single legal settlement - even of a high-profile blog like ThinkSecret.com - would be unlikely to alter the fundamental dynamic between bloggers and corporations.
"There's always going to be a kind of 'Wack-a-mole' situation that comes up here," he said. "As one site goes away, another one can come up very quickly."
