"Free speech not only lives, it rocks." So said Oprah Winfrey two years ago, after she won a legal victory over a group of cattlemen who didn't like what she said about beef in one of her programs. These days, her employees at Harpo Inc. are required to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from talking or writing about the talk-show host's personal or business life and the affairs of her company—for the rest of their lives.

†