Bloggers and the First Amendment

You know I was agitated in my recent post about the judicial decision in Apple’s favor on making bloggers disclose their sources of so-called trade secrets.

Now Michigan democratic representative, John Conyers, has written a cogent and articulate opinion piece on CNet that made me shout to myself, “Hallelujiah!”.

A few quotes that really resonated with me:

• The Internet has proved to be the greatest advancement in our ability to disseminate news and information since the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1450.

• I believe bloggers have shown they warrant First Amendment protection…

• I agree with Thomas Jefferson’s sentiments when he wrote, “The basis of our government being the opinion of people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.”

• Today we stand on the precipice of a new media revolution with the advent of the Internet. We need to protect bloggers’ First Amendment rights so they can help us protect our own citizens’ rights.

With the numerous Congressional and Executive Branch moves toward increased command and control (DMCA, Copyright extensions, Patriot Act, Total Information Awareness, etc.) the need for citizen watchdogging is greater than ever in the U.S. and men like Rep. Conyers standing up with courage like he’s done is critical.