In a decision being hailed as a turning point for internet journalism, a US court has ruled that online reporters deserve the same legal protection as their mainstream media colleagues.

The case centred on the publication of material by two rumour sites dedicated to Apple computers and related products. Apple and the Intel Corporation claimed that the blog sites should not have had access to the pre-launch material, and won a lower court case which ruled that the three journalists behind the stories should reveal their sources. However, when the case reached California's supreme court, it found that there was no test to determine what news is legitimate and which isn't: ruling for Apple, it found, would subvert the US constitution's first amendment.

JD Lasica rounds up some of the reaction from the comments columns. Suffice to say, it's been jubilant. "This is a hugely important victory for bloggers and grassroots media", he writes. Here's one newspaper's view:

(The ruling) "broke new ground by concluding that bloggers and Web masters enjoy the same protections against divulging confidential sources as established media organizations. Civil liberties groups and journalism organizations have argued that online journalists need to protect the confidentiality of sources just as much as traditional media, such as the New York Times and CNN."

and The Daily Kos:

"Coming in the heels of the FEC's decisions to grant bloggers and other internet media practicioners the media exemption, a solid body of law is being developed upholding the principles that citizen media deserves the same First Amendment protections as "professional" journalists."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the digital freedom group who supported the three journalists in the case, said "The court has upheld the strong protections for the free flow of information to the press, and from the press to the public."

A good day for journalists, then, and a bad one for Apple. Apple, which used to base much of its appeal on its left-field outsider's mystique, stood to lose a lot of credibility by taking the case to court. Perhaps, like Google, Apple is becoming the latest company to move from plucky good guy to multinational villain.

The company jealously guards its products-in-progress, preferring to to launch surprise releases with a maximum of publicity - hence the cottage industry of rumour sites which have sprung up, each claiming an insider's angle on what the iPod giant is releasing next.

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