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Criminal Investigation of Lost Next-Generation iPhone Spurred by Apple Requests

wovel said:
It is sad to see such an ill-informed population then. Our media is hardly better, but seeing a criminal as a victim just because you do not like the organization they committed a crime against speaks of serious issues.
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Meh, it goes both ways. On the rare occasion that news from Sweden appear in American media they're barely recognizable. Media in all countries tweak the hell out of international news, hoping nobody will notice because they can't compare it to the original source since they don't speak language X.

The propensity for ignoring the criminal aspect also appears to increase with distance. When Swedish police barged in and seized torrent site Pirate Bay's servers and later charged and convicted the owners, a lot of Americans (even on MR) were going "dang, I thought Sweden was a democracy but clearly it's a dictatorship run by Big Brother, they set the Gestapo on kids, and the government, law enforcement and the entertainment industry are all in bed with eachother". The fact that they broke Swedish law and were punished accordingly clearly meant nothing to these Americans, just like California state law doesn't mean jack sh** to many Swedes.
 
cmaier said:
He's done a lot more than $80k damage to a local tax paying employer of lots of local taxpaying employees.
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Nonsense. Apple will sell just as many iPhones as they would have before this and possibly more now that people know a new phone is coming soon and choose to wait rather than buy another brand. The melodramatic "oh it will cost Apple millions or billions" cries are silly.
 
jaykk said:
Isn't why Google pulled out of china, since google thought someone is trying to hack into their system to steal their trade secret?
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I think they left due to Chinese government intervention.
 
pastparticiple said:
Nonsense. Apple will sell just as many iPhones as they would have before this and possibly more now that people know a new phone is coming soon and choose to wait rather than buy another brand. The melodramatic "oh it will cost Apple millions or billions" cries are silly.
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Double nonsense on you. The wall street journal is already reporting that Apple is going to move the iPhone HD launch up now because they expect the premature release of information, broadcast not just on tech blogs but in every mainstream media outlet, is going to result in a drop of sales of iPhone 3GS's as people choose to wait for the new device. Those extra couple months of leveraging the R&D that went into the 3GS are a big deal.
 
CalebD said:
If he had stuck to his journalist ethics and accepted the product as-is and only taken photos of it, he'd be in the clear right now thumbing his nose at you Apple losers for being so stupid (giving a highly-coveted prototype to an employee and letting him go drinking it with it).
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Here's a glimpse into the "journalist ethics" from Gizmodo, using a TV-B Gone at CES.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRwZMG5GQ4

Kinda makes it easy to differentiate between a blogger and a journalist.
It's funny how you think anyone who is against the thief and Gizmodo is somehow an Apple fan boy. I don't see one Apple display at all at the CES prank vid clip I just posted and it's still a completely dick move from Gizmodo.
 
Munc said:
I think they left due to government intervention.
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For argument sake, Chen will do anything for bragging rights, thats all I was referring to.

People doesn't have common courtesy to respect someone else' property. If it doesn't belong to you, why bother? stay clear of someone else' property.
 
pastparticiple said:
Apple will sell just as many iPhones as they would have before this and possibly more now that people know a new phone is coming soon and choose to wait rather than buy another brand.
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Yes, although the probably also stopped buying iPhone 3GS earlier than expected so those two factors pretty much cancel eachother out.

The melodramatic "oh it will cost Apple millions or billions" cries are silly.
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Yup.
 
cmaier said:
Double nonsense on you. The wall street journal is already reporting that Apple is going to move the iPhone HD launch up now because they expect the premature release of information, broadcast not just on tech blogs but in every mainstream media outlet, is going to result in a drop of sales of iPhone 3GS's as people choose to wait for the new device. Those extra couple months of leveraging the R&D that went into the 3GS are a big deal.
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Sounds reasonable to me. Well at least there is something good - a vage possibility to get the new iPhone earlier :)
 
gabe2gg said:
Thank you kind sir. People have to realize that each state have their own set of laws and just because you have a law in your state, doesnt mean it will be the same in a State like California
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Thanks! I at least tried to cite some sources and not pull stuff from nowhere ;)
 
cmaier said:
Double nonsense on you. The wall street journal is already reporting that Apple is going to move the iPhone HD launch up now because they expect the premature release of information, broadcast not just on tech blogs but in every mainstream media outlet, is going to result in a drop of sales of iPhone 3GS's as people choose to wait for the new device. Those extra couple months of leveraging the R&D that went into the 3GS are a big deal.
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And the people who would have bought 3gs are now going to by a new one instead that will probably cost more..how is that a loss? They were either going to buy now or wait and buy the update anyway before this all came out so I don't see your point.
 
Anuba said:
Meh, it goes both ways. On the rare occasion that news from Sweden appear in American media they're barely recognizable. Media in all countries tweak the hell out of international news, hoping nobody will notice because they can't compare it to the original source since they don't speak language X.

The propensity for ignoring the criminal aspect also appears to increase with distance. When Swedish police barged in and seized torrent site Pirate Bay's servers and later charged and convicted the owners, a lot of Americans (even on MR) were going "dang, I thought Sweden was a democracy but clearly it's a dictatorship run by Big Brother, they set the Gestapo on kids, and the government, law enforcement and the entertainment industry are all in bed with eachother". The fact that they broke Swedish law and were punished accordingly clearly meant nothing to these Americans, just like California state law doesn't mean jack sh** to many Swedes.
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I agree 100%, it definitely goes both ways. I am sure we all have our skewed view of the world. It was amusing yesterday to see someone from England call America a Police State. In actuality neither country is really, but if you were going to pick one, most objective observers would certainly pick England as the police state.
 
pastparticiple said:
And the people who would have bought 3gs are now going to by a new one instead that will probably cost more..how is that a loss? They were either going to buy now or wait and buy the update anyway before this all came out so I don't see your point.
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Because they would have bought an iPhone 3GS, and then eventually an iPhone HD. Over time, that's one less phone they might have bought. Further, the margins are likely higher on the 3GS since Apple has probably already written off the costs of R&D on that device, so they earn more profit on that sale.

Additionally, a dollar now is worth more than a dollar two months from now. It's the "Time Value of Money" calculation. So aside from getting less profits from the sales to these people, the profit arrives later and is worth even less.
 
pastparticiple said:
And the people who would have bought 3gs are now going to by a new one instead that will probably cost more..how is that a loss? They were going to buy one or the other not both so I don't see your point.
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Still a judge will probably see that there is a economic damage for Apple, if they really planned to sell it later they probably will not have started to producing them and "old" iPhone 3Gs will have to be sold cheaper than expected. Also logistics and organisation changes will count in.
 
PeckhamBog said:
Stolen?

It was lost (from the reports I heard) but was there ever an intention to permanently deprive the owner of it?
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CA law is pretty clear on this point. You can't keep the item, you can't take apart the item, you can't sell the item, you can't buy the item knowing the possessor isn't the rightful owner. You have to return it or give it to the cops.

It was theft.

Look, the guy didn't call the bar (the engineer did, often), he didn't turn it into the bar, he found the Apple engineer on Facebook but didn't contact him, he didn't take it to an Apple Store, he didn't mail it to 1 Infinite Loop. The phone was missing for a MONTH while it was being shopped around.

He used the device and removed it from its fake 3gs case. He, for profit, shopped the phone around to tech sites including Wired who indicated he was looking to be paid. Gawker, the boss of which only last June in an interview claimed they are *not* journalists, paid $5,000 for it.

They turned around and dismantled the device, again for profit, and photographed it for all the world causing as yet unquantifiable levels of harm to Apple. No journalist ethics justify Gawker/Gizmodo's behavior.

The mental masturbators on /., Gizmodo and other sites need to get out of mom's basement, and stop knee-jerk hating Apple for acting responsibly to protect shareholder value.

That the engineer and a lawyer went to the cops to report is not even news.
The cops need a complaint to investigate. They got one. They're investigating. Thoroughly.

It makes me ill to hear Gawker/Gizmodo are not trying to hide behind journalist shield laws. They're ethically bankrupt and I hope Apple gets a full measure of legal recourse against the primary thief and his internet benefactors.
 
andromedanovula said:
I do disagree. You cannot sell something that isn't yours. Under which circumstances he could have thought he is in the right to sell it? Maybe when a Apple support person said: "It is not ours do whatever you want with it"? Hardly. If the eng. did not give him it as a present or sold it I doubt - which none of the stories say - I see no way that it is not "illegal".
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I understand your position, but even the DA is saying they first have to determine if a crime was even committed. If one was we'll all find out in a couple weeks I would guess. But, they have already talked to most everyone involved and still haven't filed charges, so they must think there is something additional on Chens computers that could push them either way.

pastparticiple said:
And the people who would have bought 3gs are now going to by a new one instead that will probably cost more..how is that a loss? They were either going to buy now or wait and buy the update anyway before this all came out so I don't see your point.
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Well Apple loves selling old tech at new tech prices. I'm sure their 3gs cost is pretty low right now and their profit margin at this point is sky high. Anyone in the know is already waiting for the 4g iphone, but many people who wouldn't have known about it may now hold off and buy a 4g instead which out the gate will have a smaller margin. Good for those people, but sucks for Apple. Now, how to quantify that is a completely different matter.
 
mdatwood said:
Good for those people, but sucks for Apple. Now, how to quantify that is a completely different matter.
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It's hard for laymen to quantify. In the eventual lawsuit Apple will hire expert witnesses (typically economists with tons of papers under their belts) who will quantify it quite easily.
 
cmaier said:
It's hard for laymen to quantify. In the eventual lawsuit Apple will hire expert witnesses (typically economists with tons of papers under their belts) who will quantify it quite easily.
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Apple is sue happy.
 
inaka said:
Here's a glimpse into the "journalist ethics" from Gizmodo, using a TV-B Gone at CES.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRwZMG5GQ4

Kinda makes it easy to differentiate between a blogger and a journalist.
It's funny how you think anyone who is against the thief and Gizmodo is somehow an Apple fan boy. I don't see one Apple display at all at the CES prank vid clip I just posted and it's still a completely dick move from Gizmodo.
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Funny video:D but very stupid if adults are doing that.
 
dru` said:
The mental masturbators on /., Gizmodo and other sites need to get out of mom's basement, and stop knee-jerk hating
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You mean like the Apple fanboys in this forum? Yeah I agree.

You guys do know that Steve isn't going to give you a free iPod for backing him up in a forum right?
 
pastparticiple said:
And the people who would have bought 3gs are now going to by a new one instead that will probably cost more..how is that a loss? They were either going to buy now or wait and buy the update anyway before this all came out so I don't see your point.
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Well, they sync manufacturing tightly with the launch schedule so that they won't be sitting on a small mountain of unsold old products when the new ones arrive. That's why you'll often see the shipping window slip when a refresh is imminent.

Now that they're stuck with a mountain of unsold 3GS specimen, they'll either have to dump the price on them (which is a double loss since they'll A- make less money than expected, and B- cannibalize 4G sales), or get rid of them (recycling, landfill...), also a loss.
 
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