What hypocrisy?
1) we didn't have any duty or obligation not to look at the pictures
2) we didn't find the phone and fail to make reasonable efforts to return it
3) we didn't receive the phone, pay for it, etc.
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Police Seize Gizmodo Editor's Computers and Other Property Related to Lost Next-Generation iPhone
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What hypocrisy?
1) we didn't have any duty or obligation not to look at the pictures
2) we didn't find the phone and fail to make reasonable efforts to return it
3) we didn't receive the phone, pay for it, etc.
And you are saying that for this generous act of kindness in publicly humiliating an innocent young man Gizmodo should receive a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card? Just forget all about the accessory after the fact to grand larceny, the misprision of felony, the receiving of stolen goods? Do they also get a pass on the civil liability to Apple and its employee as well?
I hope you realize you sound equally as ignorant as anyone "interpreting the law" when you only criticize and then offer no useful information.
But keep going, it makes you look smart.
There is little doubt that Apple pressed for this warrant.
It is enough to make me stop buying their products if this is going to be their tactics. An employee lost a phone, big deal, this is so far over the top it's crazy.
Today we already heard that Apple is telling some other guy he has "exceeded his life time limit on iPads" and now this crap....
**** you Apple... and I'm a FAN ! Just imagine the millage from people that hate your products!!!
Idiots.
Good choice in username.
They did plug it into a computer and iTunes saw it as an iPhone.
http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone
So the legal definition for stolen is based on how you dispose of the item rather than on how you came into its possession? I'm no expert on the law but hat sounds a little skittish.
It was recognized as an iphone. Further, either the finder and/or Giz saw it running iphone apps, including the facebook app.
Until he sold it he could plausibly argue that he was trying to return it to its rightful owner.
And, yes, frequently how you dispose of an item is what matters. You rent a car. You sell it. It's not stolen? You go to a restaurant and skip on the check. You didn't steal the food?
Unless, of course, you are willing to jump to conclusions based on something as insubstantial as Gizmodo's published confession of every material fact required to prove the crime.
Yes, but do you think the value is closer to $120B or $5k? To say that the phone represents 50% of the value of the company is idiotically absurd.
Personally, I think Gizmodo got what they deserved. I submitted the following comment to their website last week, which pretty much sums up my opinion...
"Honestly, Gizmodo... I'm disappointed with you guys after this whole debacle. And this isn't an effort to defend a ginormous corporation; Apple can do that for themselves. No, instead, I think you guys have acted shady during this entire fiasco. This isn't Watergate, and it's not some selfless act of journalism... It's all about the clicks. About being first. And yes, it's a business... I don't blame you for wanting the scoop. But guess what? Thanks to the law - not Apple's law, but the state of California's - you can't have it. But you took it anyway. The only people that have benefitted from your leak of the new iPhone are Gawker and Apple's competitors.
First off, the dude who found the phone had a legal and moral obligation to try to return it to its rightful owner. But forget morals... He put in only the smallest, most cursory efforts to return the phone. I mean, c'mon... He called Apple's technical support line? Seriously? Even you admitted that it's ridiculous. Why not try returning the phone to the bar owner? (Which, if I lost my phone, is the first place I would have called. And, from my understanding elsewhere, the owner of the iPhone TRIED calling the bar frantically, many times, to no avail.) Gee, that would've been smart. Or, try turning it into the police. Sure, Apple wiped the phone so the guy who found it couldn't check the contacts list and call someone. And you explained how they couldn't track the GPS location due to a bug in iPhone OS 4. But BIG DEAL. Return it to the bar owner, give it to the police... ANYTHING. The guy who found it had MANY more options, and I doubt that, in a court of law, he'd be able to demonstrate a reasonable effort to return the property to its rightful owner. Opening up a technical support ticket with Apple seems like a way for this guy to just cover his own back. He knew, after rummaging through the guy's personal information on the phone and playing with the new OS that this was an unreleased iPhone. And guess what? Despite your protests to the contrary, you did too. Or at least you must have had a reasonable expectation that it was real.
Next up: your involvement. You financially aided a thief by paying him 5000 bucks. And so, okay, let's give you the benefit of the doubt... Maybe you DIDN'T know that this was the new iPhone. (wink, wink) So, you say, okay... let's buy something that could be a knock-off. Well, that's just like buying a television from a guy in a back alley. Sure, the guy who sold it to you didn't SAY that it was stolen... But you'd probably suspect that it could have been. It's up to you, as the buyer, to make sure that you're not purchasing stolen goods. It doesn't matter if the phone was a knock-off at all. You were buying goods that did not belong to the seller. That's called theft.
And personally, I think it's really heinous how you're trying to seem so magnanimous by defending the guy who lost it. Yes, it was an honest mistake. But seriously, it sounds to me like you're writing so much about the poor guy in an effort to make yourselves look better. I'm reminded of Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List: "I pardon you."
So congratulations, you got the scoop. And you got Apple to admit that it's their property. (Which you returned... Again, how utterly generous and legally upright you were!) Thankfully, for your sake, I doubt that Apple will raise criminal or civil charges against you... But they could, and honestly, they would win. You wrote, in reference to Apple and this entire fiasco, "We'll never forget seeing the strings." Well, I for one will never forget seeing yours. And the shady way in which you do business, and then try to cover your own behinds with lame, disingenuous statements. Good job on getting all the publicity and "hits" from viewers. But from now on, you'll get one hit less."
"Honestly, Gizmodo... I'm disappointed with you guys after this whole debacle. And this isn't an effort to defend a ginormous corporation; Apple can do that for themselves. No, instead, I think you guys have acted shady during this entire fiasco. This isn't Watergate, and it's not some selfless act of journalism... It's all about the clicks. About being first. And yes, it's a business... I don't blame you for wanting the scoop. But guess what? Thanks to the law - not Apple's law, but the state of California's - you can't have it. But you took it anyway. The only people that have benefitted from your leak of the new iPhone are Gawker and Apple's competitors.
First off, the dude who found the phone had a legal and moral obligation to try to return it to its rightful owner. But forget morals... He put in only the smallest, most cursory efforts to return the phone. I mean, c'mon... He called Apple's technical support line? Seriously? Even you admitted that it's ridiculous. Why not try returning the phone to the bar owner? (Which, if I lost my phone, is the first place I would have called. And, from my understanding elsewhere, the owner of the iPhone TRIED calling the bar frantically, many times, to no avail.) Gee, that would've been smart. Or, try turning it into the police. Sure, Apple wiped the phone so the guy who found it couldn't check the contacts list and call someone. And you explained how they couldn't track the GPS location due to a bug in iPhone OS 4. But BIG DEAL. Return it to the bar owner, give it to the police... ANYTHING. The guy who found it had MANY more options, and I doubt that, in a court of law, he'd be able to demonstrate a reasonable effort to return the property to its rightful owner. Opening up a technical support ticket with Apple seems like a way for this guy to just cover his own back. He knew, after rummaging through the guy's personal information on the phone and playing with the new OS that this was an unreleased iPhone. And guess what? Despite your protests to the contrary, you did too. Or at least you must have had a reasonable expectation that it was real.
Next up: your involvement. You financially aided a thief by paying him 5000 bucks. And so, okay, let's give you the benefit of the doubt... Maybe you DIDN'T know that this was the new iPhone. (wink, wink) So, you say, okay... let's buy something that could be a knock-off. Well, that's just like buying a television from a guy in a back alley. Sure, the guy who sold it to you didn't SAY that it was stolen... But you'd probably suspect that it could have been. It's up to you, as the buyer, to make sure that you're not purchasing stolen goods. It doesn't matter if the phone was a knock-off at all. You were buying goods that did not belong to the seller. That's called theft.
And personally, I think it's really heinous how you're trying to seem so magnanimous by defending the guy who lost it. Yes, it was an honest mistake. But seriously, it sounds to me like you're writing so much about the poor guy in an effort to make yourselves look better. I'm reminded of Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List: "I pardon you."
So congratulations, you got the scoop. And you got Apple to admit that it's their property. (Which you returned... Again, how utterly generous and legally upright you were!) Thankfully, for your sake, I doubt that Apple will raise criminal or civil charges against you... But they could, and honestly, they would win. You wrote, in reference to Apple and this entire fiasco, "We'll never forget seeing the strings." Well, I for one will never forget seeing yours. And the shady way in which you do business, and then try to cover your own behinds with lame, disingenuous statements. Good job on getting all the publicity and "hits" from viewers. But from now on, you'll get one hit less."
Lost property becomes stolen when the founder doesn't do all reasonable ways to return it to the proper owner.
This includes which the founder did not do:
A) Give his number to the bars management.
B) Find any contact info( his facebook account) and contact him or his friends.
C) Turn it into the police.
Founder failed to do all three.
Because some people trust themselves finding the owner more than other people? The 3 times i lost my phone i luckily got it back...from a nice cab driver who called my father and he called my job. To a random person who found it and tracked me down.
TO add, i am on Sprint, so it makes it rather tough to have your phone stolen.
I did find an iphone on the floor of a bar once and i asked each person in the bar if they lost a phone and what kind. Luckily the woman was still there, but if not? Yeah i would've taken it home to try to find the owner.
The point is, if you know whose property it is and yet you still hold onto it, then in effect you are stealing.
It was clear cut even to the shmuck who picked it up who the iPhone belonged to - Apple - hence the effort to sell it on.
I think he stuffed up, and then Giz went ahead and made the situation a whole lot worse.
Just think if he'd contacted Apple directly and quietly returned the prototype, do you not think Apple may have swung him a little something?
" Dear Steve, I found your new iPhone, how can I get it back to you?"
" Finder, thanks; will come collect. And here's a new MBP, cheers."
lolz...
funny to see gizmo noobs and apple fanboys making a big fuss out of this. let me just quickly point out that:
1. it's just a hyped-up iphone prototype, not a trade secret. there are many phones better than this piece of hyped-up crap. not like competitors will copy anything from this phone, period.
2. gray powell is gotta be drunk, i mean must be really drunk to walk in to a bar with hmm let's see company's prototype phone, and to get even more drunk, to lose it. he is not the victim, alcohol got the best of him.
3. gizmo-retar-do, you can explain as much as you want. the fact is that you knowingly committed a crime when you illegally bought something you know it's apple's 4th gen crapPhone. how else would you readily pay 5k for it eh? to those ppl who claim giz paid 5k to "find out", KISS MY ASS, that's the lamest excuse ever. i'd like to see you pay 5k to find out if the bulge in my pants is 4th gen iphone, mkay?
funny to see gizmo noobs and apple fanboys making a big fuss out of this. let me just quickly point out that:
1. it's just a hyped-up iphone prototype, not a trade secret. there are many phones better than this piece of hyped-up crap. not like competitors will copy anything from this phone, period.
2. gray powell is gotta be drunk, i mean must be really drunk to walk in to a bar with hmm let's see company's prototype phone, and to get even more drunk, to lose it. he is not the victim, alcohol got the best of him.
3. gizmo-retar-do, you can explain as much as you want. the fact is that you knowingly committed a crime when you illegally bought something you know it's apple's 4th gen crapPhone. how else would you readily pay 5k for it eh? to those ppl who claim giz paid 5k to "find out", KISS MY ASS, that's the lamest excuse ever. i'd like to see you pay 5k to find out if the bulge in my pants is 4th gen iphone, mkay?
And how much of that did you allocate to the judge who was required to find probable cause for issuing the search warrant?
If you rent a car you signed a contract with the rental company so if you turned around and sold it, you are legally liable. I don't think any of the people involved are accused of eating the iPhone, so the second example doesn't really apply
Look, not everyone may agree w/Apple's over protectionalism, but the fact remains, when they do come out w/a new product, just about everyone is happy w/it, and they are ahead of their competition, who has to play catchup.
Another thing too, it effects their sales on their present products. After seeing this new iPhone, which I like the design of, if I had been planning on buying a new iPhone now, I'd now wait for that new phone coming out in June. I'm sure many willl, thus Apple iPhones sales are now effected.
I doubt Apple planned this, I'm just surprised that the person who lost the phone is still working for Apple.
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Another thing too, it effects their sales on their present products. After seeing this new iPhone, which I like the design of, if I had been planning on buying a new iPhone now, I'd now wait for that new phone coming out in June. I'm sure many willl, thus Apple iPhones sales are now effected.
I doubt Apple planned this, I'm just surprised that the person who lost the phone is still working for Apple.
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Why not? Here's the situation:
Guy finds phone in bar.
Guy CLAIMS to have tried to contact owner and apple, with no success.
Gizmodo buys phone from guy who asserts that the phone is lost and not stolen.
The burden is now on the guy, not Gizmodo. Gizmodo is not legally bound to independently verify that the phone is lost. UNLESS, you have evidence that Gizmodo knew it was in fact stolen all along, like an email subpoena or something similar. At this point, there's nothing like that, but we'll see...
I explained this earlier. Here is the post.....
It doesn't matter if this was just an update to an existing product. It was an unreleased product. It is a trade secret. Trade secrets don't have to be ground breaking devices.