the trial court's decision on March 22, 2005, they were joined by many amici supporting the journalists' petition: the San Jose Mercury News the Hearst Corporation (San Francisco Chronicle) The McClatchy Company (The Sacramento Bee) the Los Angeles Times the Copley Press (San Diego Union-Tribune) Freedom Communications (The Orange County Register) the Associated Press the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press the California Newspaper Publishers Association the First Amendment Coalition the Society of Professional Journalists the Student Press Law Center the American Civil Liberties Union The Center for Individual Freedom The First Amendment Project, a nonprofit law firm Reporters Without Borders the Media Bloggers Association Four law professors numerous online journalists NetCoalition the United States Internet Industry Association. Amici supporting Apple include: Genentech Intel the Business Software Alliance Backlash Because the matter involved popular websites and freedom of the press issues as well as a high-profile technology company, it was highly publicized. Critics accused Apple of using the lawsuit not only to protect its trade secrets, but to frighten its employees in order to prevent future leaking. Critics of the trial court's ruling expressed concern the ruling reduced U.S. journalists' protections under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and would have a chilling effect on what can be published. Before the decision was rendered, The Register noted "If successful, the free press would be restricted to regurgitating Apple press releases and spoonfed non disclosure agreements." Many bloggers criticized Apple's suit; some of their followers thought Apple might face a blogger-initiated boycott. The Personal Technology editor of the San Jose Mercury News wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs warning that "The lawsuits pose an imminent threat to Apple's most precious asset: the company's reputation as a hip underdog, a cool alternative to bigger and blander competitors such as Microsoft, Dell and Hewlett-Packard." See also Apple Inc. litigation Hard Drive Productions, Inc. v. Does 1-1,495 References External links AppleInsider O'Grady's PowerPage Apple v. Does Electronic Frontier Foundation's coverage of the case. Accessed 2012-4-4. Opsahl, Kurt, Bloggers As Journalists: Why We Fight Apple's Subpoenas, Electronic Frontier Foundation, eff.org, 2005-1-28. Accessed 2012-4-4. How Apple lost its Groove, The Guardian, guardian.co.uk, 2005-3-16, p. 17. Accessed 2012-4-4. Burrows, Peter, Memo to Apple: Lay Off Your Fans, BusinessWeek online, businessweek.com, 2005-3-17. Accessed 2012-4-4. Slocombe, Mike, and Perry, Simon, Lose friends And Disenfranchise People, The Apple Mac Way, Digital Lifestyles, digital-lifestyles.info via web.archive.org, 2005-3-17.