Yeah, I agree, Apple comes off as a bully here. This kid did not steal the phone, and he did not sell the phone to Nokia or Blackberry or something. He went to an online news source and was paid for the exclusive right to examine it. Journalists pay for exclusive information all the time. If Gizmodo intended to steal the phone they certainly wouldn't have run an article about it. Apple is being way too heavy-handed here. Very disappointing.
Plus, I have to say all the sanctimonious condemnations of the leak on this site in particular are utterly hilarious in their lack of self awareness. This is Mac Rumors--a site that ran all the leaked information about this phone with no compunctions whatsoever--and you all read about it. You read these same kinds of stories all the time, and Arn has no problem publishing them. If you were all so concerned about Apple keeping its corporate secrets you wouldn't be here in the first place, and Arn would have stayed a doctor. Or are you going to show your solidarity with Apple by giving this site up now? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Apple can shoulder some blame too, because they use sites like this to plant fake rumors in order to generate PR. By teasing people like that and stoking their appetite for Apple rumors, they only made it more likely that someone would hand their lost prototype to a journalist instead of giving it back.