The finder was obliged to make a reasonable attempt to contact the owner. This attempt was made.
It could be argued that no attempt was made to deprive the rightful owner of the property. After all, as soon as the rightful owned asked for it was returned.
C.
First of all, California law, like the law in most places in the U.S. and elsewhere, has very specific requirements about what a finder of lost property must do before he can claim any rights in it for himself, and the finder of this iPhone failed to fulfill the law's requirements.
What troubles me though, is not that you are ignorant of the law or even that you appear to be quite confident in your legal conclusions despite your ignorance, but that you apparently have no religious, philosophical, moral, or ethical sensibility that would lead you to condemn the acts of the finder and of Gawker.
This iPhone is, after all, no different from a wallet, a handbag, or a three-carat diamond engagement ring. People simply do not willingly discard such things, and you must assume that if you find something of value someone wants it back. It belongs to them, not to the finder, and the finder must do more than make a few half-hearted phone calls before he can take the property away from its owner. Leave aside the law's specific requirements; wouldn't it be reasonable to leave the phone with the bar owner so that when the owner returns looking for it, it can be given to him? How about asking the bar owner if the occupant of the adjacent bar stool paid for his drinks with a credit card? How about posting a notice in the bar? How about notifying the local police department? If you don't trust the owner, then how about leaving your own phone number on the posted notice or with the owner. What if the wallet or purse had a driver's license? What if the iPhone had information stored in it that disclosed the identity of the user? Would you see no duty to contact the user by registered mail, overnight carrier, or by telephone? Would you feel comfortable simply selling the wallet, purse, or engagement ring for whatever you could get without taking all these steps first? Would you be any more comfortable selling an iPhone?
Is it right for Gizmodo to pay $5,000 to obtain the iPhone from someone who is clearly not the owner, who has failed to follow the law, and who has failed to do all those things someone who really wanted to return the phone would have done? Is it right for Gizmodo to open the phone, to take photos of it, and to publish it on their commercial website? Has Gizmodo any duty to try to find the owner and return the phone before it tries to discover its secrets and publish them? If Gizmodo had no right to possess the phone, no right to open it and discover its secrets, and no right to make its secrets public, does returning the phone when the owner asks for it take away any responsibility for what it had wrongfully done?
How do you really feel about people who have acted as the finder and Gizmodo's employees have? Would you want them for friends or neighbors? Would you ever really trust them? Would you want someone you care about to date them? Have they behaved in your eyes in a way you admire? Should our society encourage or discourage others from emulating the behavior of these people?
If it helps you answer these questions, pretend it was your wallet with $5,000 or more in it that someone found in a bar. At what point on the scale of effort do you conclude that the finder has done enough to justify his pocketing your cash? Just how careless or stupid do you think you have to have been in losing your wallet before the finder gets to spend your money? If you agree that you had been careless, stupid, or both to lose your wallet, do you think it is right that someone who bought your wallet from its finder should publish the story of your lapse for your family, friends, employer, and prospective employers to see?
The human race has spent a few thousand years coming up with consensus answers to these sorts of questions, and I'm just curious whether you have ever thought very much about joining us.
