Companies trying to protect against the disclosure of confidential business information may need to go to great lengths to discover the person responsible for an information leak. Doing so can be a frustrating and time-consuming exercise.
A recent California case interpreting that state’s reporter’s shield law to cover Internet-based publications introduces another obstacle for companies to overcome where proprietary information works its way on to the Internet. The result, however, might have been different had New York’s shield law applied, which suggests that counsel charged with the task of digging into such “leaks” may need to consider carefully in which forum to plant their initial lawsuit.
