Apple, which had sued AppleInsider and PowerPage for trade secrets leak, has reportedly lost the suit.

"In no relevant respect do they appear to differ from a reporter or editor for a traditional business-oriented periodical who solicits or otherwise comes into possession of confidential internal information about a company," Justice Conrad Rushing of the 6th District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous 69-page ruling.

"We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes 'legitimate journalism," he wrote. "The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here."

The company was asking the operators of the online publications to reveal their sources but the appeals court ruled that online reporters and bloggers are entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists.

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