I rarely check out the forums on macrumors, but I thought I'd chime in like everyone else!
BTW, I am not a lawyer so take what I say as just opinion
1. Apple's doing this for publicity!
As we all know, Apple is very controlling about their brand and marketing. By bringing in others into the situation (as in the police), they will lose incredible amounts of control of what is going on, what people will say, and how everything will be perceived. In my opinion, they would not do this.
2. Lost vs stolen!
General definitions--
Lose: 2. To miss from one's possession...
Webster.com
Steal: 1a. To take or appropriate without right ... with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully
webster.com
So based on this, the phone what both lost by Powell and stolen by the finder.
But how about the
laws of California?
I'll admit I didn't read it all, but here are some sections I thought were interesting...
484. (a) Every person who shall feloniously steal, take, carry, lead, or drive away the personal property of another, or who shall
fraudulently appropriate property which has been entrusted to him or
her, or who shall knowingly and designedly, by any false or
fraudulent representation or pretense, defraud any other person of
money, labor or real or personal property, or who causes or procures
others to report falsely of his or her wealth or mercantile character
and by thus imposing upon any person, obtains credit and thereby
fraudulently gets or obtains possession of money, or property or
obtains the labor or service of another, is guilty of theft. In
determining the value of the property obtained, for the purposes of
this section, the reasonable and fair market value shall be the test,
and in determining the value of services received the contract price
shall be the test.
Finder did "steal" the prototype. Not sure if it works like this but since Gizmodo/Jason Chen admitted to paying $5000 for it, they admitted to a "fair market value"... which in reality is probably much more.
485. One who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner, and who
appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another
person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just
efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him, is
guilty of theft.
The finder could have given the phone to the bar owner/employees. But think about this....
Gizmodo announced the identity of Gray Powell. How did they get his name despite the phone being remotely wiped??? The finder found his identity on the phone's facebook app.
Link
"
During that time, he played with it. It seemed like a normal iPhone. "I thought it was just an iPhone 3GS," he told me in a telephone interview. "It just looked like one. I tried the camera, but it crashed three times."
The iPhone didn't seem to have any special features, just two bar codes stuck on its back: 8800601pex1 and N90_DVT_GE4X_0493. Next to the volume keys there was another sticker: iPhone SWE-L200221.
Apart from that, just six pages of applications. One of them was Facebook. And there, on the Facebook screen, was the Apple engineer, Gray Powell.
Thinking about returning the phone the next day, he left. When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead. Bricked remotely, through MobileMe, the service Apple provides to track and wipe out lost iPhones.
It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone. The exterior didn't feel right and there was a camera on the front. After tinkering with it, he managed to open the fake 3GS."
So the finder knew of Gray Powell's identity, and could have contacted him directly via facebook. Could have just said...."o hey did you or a friend lose a phone at a bar last night?" He didn't. He thought about it. Saw something unique and opened up the phone. Whether prototype, real, fake, owned by a company or individual, the finder didn't really do their due diligence to find the owner.
Laws continued!
486. Theft is divided into two degrees, the first of which is
termed grand theft; the second, petty theft.
487. Grand theft is theft committed in any of the following cases:
(a) When the money, labor, or real or personal property taken is
of a value exceeding four hundred dollars ($400) except as provided
in subdivision (b).
The value is at least $5000 (what gizmodo paid), and is therefore considered grand theft.
496. (a) Every person who buys or receives any property that has
been stolen or that has been obtained in any manner constituting
theft or extortion, knowing the property to be so stolen or obtained,
or who conceals, sells, withholds, or aids in concealing, selling,
or withholding any property from the owner, knowing the property to
be so stolen or obtained, shall be punished by imprisonment in a
state prison, or in a county jail for not more than one year.
However, if the district attorney or the grand jury determines that
this action would be in the interests of justice, the district
attorney or the grand jury, as the case may be, may, if the value of
the property does not exceed nine hundred fifty dollars ($950),
specify in the accusatory pleading that the offense shall be a
misdemeanor, punishable only by imprisonment in a county jail not
exceeding one year.
Not sure what to make of the last part... it may mean that since the value is over $950 it is considered a felony. But anyway... someone knowing that they are buying something stolen is a crime, punishable by jailtime. Gizmodo knew the phone was not the property of the finder.
3. Gray Powell will get fired!
He lost the prototype phone a month ago, and appears to still work for Apple. If they were going to fire him, they would have done so by now.
Just my opinions
