...on the left of the site. For now, I removed Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, and Salon for their very, very disappointing involvement in this.

I'll have to read all this for MDJ, of course, but the involvement of the above sites seems to be saying "We want to report on matters of public interest using leaked information, so courts should rule that any journalist has the right to publish anything he can find anywhere, whether it invades personal or corporate privacy or not."

The main point in the brief is one I can agree with - the rumor sites should be treated as journalists. But they then want to excuse their behavior and alleged theft of Apple property as "journalism." The courts have said that's possible when the material is in the public interest, like Kos leaking Frank Luntz's strategy memo about how Republicans are going to lie to destroy Social Security.

FireWire audio interfaces don't count, and I'm sorry to those sites I read and support, but I'm not OK with the idea that no one has any secrets that a self-proclaimed "journalist" can't publish without being held responsible for it. If a private matter is not in the public interest, it's none of the public's damn business.

More in an upcoming MDJ, I'm sure.