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Police Seize Gizmodo Editor's Computers and Other Property Related to Lost Next-Generation iPhone

Chen, who returned home from a dinner out to find the police in his home, notes that he discussed with the officers claims made by Gaby Darbyshire, Chief Operating Officer of Gizmodo's parent company Gawker Media that such a search warrant should be considered illegal under journalist protection statutes.
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Gizmodo = journalism?
 
With my previous employer, we had a laptop missing from our conference room, someone was playing a joke and kept it in another room. But as a protocol, after searching for a while, we have to call the police to report the missing laptop. From then onwards, its up to the cops to decide to investigate further or not. I think its a standard practice with any big firms. I don't see why people are blaming apple for this.

Thats for a developer laptop, this prototype phone is worth much more.

Edit: prototype phone, not just any phone
 
min_t said:
Actually, Gizmodo is probably ecstatic about this. More page hits.:rolleyes:
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You have that right. I think it is just a matter of time EFF and a few other digital rights groups start to jump on this. If their reasoning that is that if they are just "web only" and not print they cannot claim journalist privilege, this can turn into a landmark case.
 
ctdonath said:
Journalism does not trump trafficking in stolen goods.
Paying for something which you know is not the lawful property of the seller is theft.
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They asked Apple if they owned it. Apple said it wasn't theirs. They put photos up of it. Apple said "Just kidding, it's ours." They gave it back to apple.
 
Yeah, the fact that the transaction was for a hefty sum ($5000) indicates that both the seller and Gizmodo knew what the device was, making it hard for them to make any claims to the contrary. I wonder if Apple is behind this, or if the CA police just picked up on the high profile story involving obvious "stolen" goods. Apple isn't the only company with R&D that they wouldn't want as potential jackpots for thieves, so this may be a pro-industry action in general.
 
Stick a fork in Gizmodo...they're done.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Gizmodo will cease to exist one year from today. The minute they put that first picture of the iphone prototype on their site they basically signed their demise.

Steve Jobs does not F*ck around.

Either Apple will win multiple millions in damages in a lawsuit claiming overwhelming damage to their competitive secrecy lost to competitors...or Apple will force Gizmodo to go bankrupt from overwhelming legal fees trying to defend itself. Either way...they're toast.

Hope they enjoyed their 15 minutes...
 
saxamoophone said:
From which side? Gizmodo being mad at apple, or apple being mad at Gizmodo?

Apple should just let this all drop...they screwed up and lost a phone. Gizmodo got a hold of it and gave it back. As soon as it was lost pictures were going to show up either way....
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I'm sorry At no point have Apple confirmed the phone was lost, for all we know it was stolen and apple may have filed it as so before it came to light giz had it.
 
Pretty much deserved it IMO. I also found their email kinda funny. I'm no where near a law expert but my understanding is that those codes were made to protect real journalists. Not the tech journos of today who dont think they did anything wrong when they bought a prototype which they were more than aware is not something meant for the public.

What next? Break into Apple HQ and find out more secrets? Why not even throw a RTI here? We all deserve to know what apple is working on no matter if they want to or now. And then throw that 1524(g) of the California Penal Code in the face of police if they investigate. yeah :rolleyes:
 
saxamoophone said:
Apple should just let this all drop...they screwed up and lost a phone. Gizmodo got a hold of it and gave it back. As soon as it was lost pictures were going to show up either way....
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Except Gizmodo has legal liability for buying a phone that they know did not belong to the buyer (and was property of either an Apple engineer or Apple as a company). They verified it before the transaction occurred- checking the USB IDs, seeing it opened iTunes, etc- so they were sure it was not an old iPhone or a fake in a weird case, but a prototype. This is by their own admission.

At that point, Jason Chen bought stolen property. It's that simple.

As a publicly held corporation, Apple's goal is to maximize value for their stockholders. The loss of a high profile product- which is valued on its uniqueness, and secrecy, and surprise launches- is definitely something that harms the country.

I only have a couple iPods, I own no other Apple products, and I am not a fan of the company as a whole. But not expecting Apple to take whatever recourse they can get is ridiculous.
 
xUKHCx said:
Difference is this involves trade secrets which can have a much much larger impact and Gizmodo earned money from the process.

It is still under investigation if they are found to have do nothing wrong then it will end here however the police had enough evidence to believe that a crime was committed and are acting on it, i.e. doing the job they are supposed to do.
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If the lawyer is correct and the search warrant is invalid won't any evidence found at his home will be inadmissible in court?
 
For what they did to that poor Apple engineer posting his name and photo all over the place (which was absolutely not necessary), they deserve all that is about to come!
 
What else was Apple supposed to do?
It's not like Apple can just have Jason Chen thrown out a window like they do to people over in China. :rolleyes:
 
TennisandMusic said:
Wow...if ANY other company did this can you imagine the backlash? How can this possibly be good for Apple? "You got a hold of our phone, we are now going to send the police to kick in your door and take your things."
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That is a decision for the police to make, not Apple.
 
Did they not think this would happen? Same as those stupid people who lied about getting bad food from Del Taco just to get some free food and posted the video up on youtube - some cops saw it and the idiots were fined. Go figure?
 
swingerofbirch said:
Just saw this:

http://gizmodo.com/5524843/police-seize-jason-chens-computers

I can believe it, but it shouldn't have happened this way. Apple undoubtedly holds a great deal of sway in these matters. Apple lost a phone. It is despicable that a company as large as Apple then relies on and pressures public resources, such as our police, to harass and steal from someone who embarrassed Apple over having lost said phone. Can you possibly imagine losing all your data in one day? All your computers, iPhones, iPads, and your backups of all your data too? It's unfathomable.
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Except that the items seized were not lost. :rolleyes:
 
Why is it that since a crime was committed that it should be forgotten? While i know people love Gizmodo wrong is wrong and right is right. This forum is very biased and childish when it comes to things like this.

Seems like if it was other companies it would be okay but since it's apple i guess they aren't suppose to be pissed this happen? It's not only a phone at this point its a crime and get mad all you want but that won't change it.
 
nick9191 said:
Chen was in possession of stolen property, the police raided his house.

You have no evidence the Apple had sway in the matter, it could merely be the media attention.
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Apple, at minimum, had to report the phone to the police as "stolen". If the item is never considered "stolen", then the police have *ZERO* reason to even investigate, much less get a warrant to search his home.

Mere press speculation and statements regarding the "stolen" nature of it is not sufficient as evidence that something was stolen.
 
I remember an MSNBC anchor lauding Apple for being so classy in just sending a polite letter to Gizmodo requesting return of the iPhone. So much for classy.
 
I suppose theft is against the law... But we all know that Apple is gonna make a bigger deal over this than normal. If they care this much they shouldn't have allowed someone to go to a bar with the prototype. And apparently the guy who lost it wasn't fired... Go figure.
 
OllyW said:
If the lawyer is correct and the search warrant is invalid won't any evidence found at his home will be inadmissible in court?
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Yes, but it's a pretty big assumption. They'd essentially have to judge that calling Applecare- and not attempting to contact the employee he saw lost the device- was reasonable (employee has a public twitter and facebook, or had- Gizmodo took screenshots).

Anyhow, if that isn't found to be invalid, Gizmodo is sure they bought a prototype Apple device (by their own admission) and purchased stolen property (California penal code makes no provisions for device custody, and it'd be very difficult to argue that Gizmodo didn't buy the phone, but only the custody).
 
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