Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm assuming he is referring to when Gizmodo said they would be happy to return the iPhone to Apple in exchange for a written letter stating that the phone belonged to Apple.



According to California law, property that is found by someone who is not the original owner does not transfer ownership away from the original owner for a fairly lengthy period of time (3 months I think), and when it does, the ownership transfers to the owner of the land the item was found on, not the person who found it. The person who found the phone had absolutely no legal right to sell it.

You came to the wrong place to talk like that.

can i just say i'm the biggest iphone lover and hater at the same time?

i dont' care for apple fanboys but i love my iphone. actually i'm going on launch day to hang out with all the iphone fans.
 
again if a law was broken then that azn guy would of been tossed in jail.

he found a phone - i could of claimed it was mine.

of course a letter was necessary to ensure that it was going back to the proper owner.

:rolleyes:

People will go to jail for this. And a personal call from steve jobs was enough - no letter is required. They had already published that it was apple's phone, so they knew it belonged to apple. Demanding something in exchange for returning property is extortion.
 
As an AAPL shareholder, I am perfectly happy with letting Steve maintain the same core values at Apple.

But that's just me...

As a shareholder as well I do agree. His core values seem to be getting the job done regardless of the morality behind them.
 
im not really sure it qualifies as stolen property, to me anyway. the developer lost it. the guy who found it made a reasonable effort to return it, to no avail. could he have done more to try to return it? sure, but if you got offered 5 grand for it you would have done the exact same thing in selling it.

i think its not worth it at all for steve to go after chen. chen did what any journalist in his position would have done, and its not like after apple asked for it he said no. its not going to make apple look good, its not going to make up anything that was lost (profit or otherwise), all hes going to be doing is ruining some kid who caught a lucky breaks life.

Either you're trolling, or are apparently unaware of all the facts which have come to light since the story broke. Read the police affidavit and warrant, and see if you're still willing to stick up for either Chen or the dude who sold the phone. He didn't get offered 5 grand — he went shopping around for buyers. Regardless, most of us wouldn't have done the same thing, and implying that everyone is as dishonest as the criminal(s) in this situation is frankly insulting. I sincerely believe (and hope) you're wrong about the ethics of society as a whole. If Chen were a respectable journalist, he (or Gizmodo) would never have purchased a stolen prototype. They made every rumor-hungry blogger and fanboy look like model citizens by comparison, and despite their spike in page views, they've lost the respect of many in the tech community.

I think Gizmodo stands to lose a lot more than Apple, regardless of trying to play the poor underdog, and they're in the wrong. You're correct that a criminal prosecution won't undo the damage that was done, but that's not the point — it's more about preventing future damage. Jerks will kick a dog that doesn't bite; once it starts biting back, jerks will think twice. Blaming the dog for biting someone who kicked it in the ribs is moronic, especially anyone with an ounce of sense should know better.
 
It's better to be a fanboy then to worship that piece of yellow journalism called gizmodo. Lemmings can even figure out this was a crime. Pretty much according to your comment the law is pretty much interchangable right? It's alright for jason chen to commit a crime? Because he is some Quasi-Robin hood like figure?

Give me a break the law is the law regardless of who breaks it or not. And Gawker and Chen are hardly the little guy in this respect.

I'm sure both of them are well off compared to the unemployed masses. So let's not talk about victims and suffering shall we?

ouch!

lol - okay we both agree here - bloggers are not journalists. engadget and gizmodo even this site alike - NOT JOURNALISTS.
I think as a blogger he was doing his job. to report on gadgets. It would have been a great disservice to the community if he just returned it without sharing any pictures. Would you still have issue with that? if he just took pictures and no $$$$$ exchanged hands?

BTW Chen was not found guilty of any crime.

as for ruining your surprise - there was enough leaks of parts to make what CHEN reported known to the masses.

Don't you agree?
 
Jobs finally says it, and what no one reporting would -- that the phone might have been stolen. And after reading the police reports at how everyone acted in this drama, I fully support Apple not letting it go. That the guy who 'allegedly' found it was so calloused about the engineer's fate, was proof to me that he stole it. Thieves never care about their victims.

I have long thought that the Apple engineer was targeted. It is just to implausible the events that unfolded for such a "lucky find".

I suspect what happened is that somebody (either the thief/finder or someone above him) realized Apple was probably having their baseband engineers field test next gen units under disguise.

The thief/finder probably had been tailing one or many engineers hoping for an opportunity to lift the unit and sell to the media and possibly even the competition.

The finder/thief just knew too much about what he found. It was disguised in a skin case and I bet you 99% of the people out there would never have thought to take off the case of a found iPhone, let alone unlock it and open their facebook page etc.

The most I would have expected is for them to unlock it and try and call a few people in the address book (e.g. Mom, Dad, Home ...), but not have the foresight to take of the case poke around on facebook, and then realize what it is and sell it off to a tech journalist company. Add to the fact that the thief/finder then plugged it into a computer and when caught tried to destroy evidence.

The zinger will come when Apple releases their call center records and it turns out the guy never called apple to try and return the phone.

There is way more to this story and neither the thief/finder nor Gizmodo are going to end well.
 


During tonight's All Things D Interview, Steve Jobs indicated that he was not going to let the stolen/lost iPhone prototype incident "slide":In April, Gizmodo purchased an iPhone prototype and posted several news stories about the device. There has been an ongoing investigation on the incident which resulted in a search warrant for Gizmodo editor Jason Chen.

Article Link: Steve Jobs on Stolen Prototype iPhone: Not Going to Let It Slide.

If this isn't confirmation the Gizmodo phone is the real-deal, I don't know what is. For the doubters, of course. ;)
 
I see a reason to demand a letter saying that what I have found is yours before I give it to you. If not Apple could just demand every iPhone KIRF any website takes pictures of. Now I am quite sure there was little (read: no) doubt that it was an Apple product but I think it makes since to get an official documentation of ownership before giving something to someone.

********. They published that it was apples phone. They received a phone call from steve jobs himself. There was zero doubt, and chen is going to jail.
 
People will go to jail for this. And a personal call from steve jobs was enough - no letter is required. They had already published that it was apple's phone, so they knew it belonged to apple. Demanding something in exchange for returning property is extortion.

if this is so then a multi billion dollar company shouldn't have any issue prosecuting Chen to the full extent of the law.

But i dont think it was right that Apple Fanboys sent him death threats for ruining 'their iphone 4 surprise'? dont u agree?
 
If this isn't confirmation the Gizmodo phone is the real-deal, I don't know what is.

Although we know everything about the new iPhone and nothing all at the same time.

This years keynote should be a good one since everyone knows what it looks like but no one knows its secrets or what "one more thing..." is.
 
if this is so then a multi billion dollar company shouldn't have any issue prosecuting Chen to the full extent of the law.

But i dont think it was right that Apple Fanboys sent him death threats for ruining 'their iphone 4 surprise'? dont u agree?

I haven't heard of any such thing, but of course that's not right.
 
ouch!

lol - okay we both agree here - bloggers are not journalists. engadget and gizmodo even this site alike - NOT JOURNALISTS.
I think as a blogger he was doing his job. to report on gadgets. It would have been a great disservice to the community if he just returned it without sharing any pictures. Would you still have issue with that? if he just took pictures and no $$$$$ exchanged hands?

BTW Chen was not found guilty of any crime.

as for ruining your surprise - there was enough leaks of parts to make what CHEN reported known to the masses.

Don't you agree?

The thing is that alot of people who read blogs are sheepishly trusting not sure why but they are. So if someone is a blogger then they should have some sort of integrity and foresight.

Anyone with a lick of common sense would have just left the iP4 prototype just where it was. For me even if money didn't change hands. He still should have had the sense to know that there was going to be heat with this.

And also there is a domino effect of the fact that Gawker may be in trouble for this too. So his actions has caused problems for others as well.
 
I posted this on the other thread, but it's more appropriate here...

:apple: release the hounds...
 
But i dont think it was right that Apple Fanboys sent him death threats for ruining 'their iphone 4 surprise'? dont u agree?

LOL I highly doubt that happened. That rumor was probarly started by some android user. And there is no suprise that was ruined IMO. Because i honestly never thought that prototype was going to be what the real iP4 looks like.

The prototype IMO is a red herring and we will all be suprised at what is unveiled at WWDC :cool:
 
A huge corporation crushing some stupid kid, what a heart warming story, why would anyone want to drop that?
 
I haven't heard of any such thing, but of course that's not right.

i just made it up - that's why you don't trust bloggers like Chen. BTW i think he's the guy that wanted to 'crush engadget'

The thing is that alot of people who read blogs are sheepishly trusting not sure why but they are. So if someone is a blogger then they should have some sort of integrity and foresight.

Anyone with a lick of common sense would have just left the iP4 prototype just where it was. For me even if money didn't change hands. He still should have had the sense to know that there was going to be heat with this.

And also there is a domino effect of the fact that Gawker may be in trouble for this too. So his actions has caused problems for others as well.


at the end of the day Jedi- we would of found out all this iphone 4 leaks already BEFORE LAUNCH - (ie see that azn prototype leak, see iphone 4 parts, etc)
 
BTW Chen was not found guilty of any crime.
The investigation is continuing. It's not over yet.

Chen will be found guilty (or will plead to it). I doubt if he'll do any time behind bars, but his career in journalism is over. Same with Brian Lam.

Their own admission to what happened basically seals the deal. It's just a matter of time before the San Mateo County D.A.'s office files charges, probably after the iPhone announcement. Who knows, maybe Steve told them to delay the process. The SMC court system is overloaded, the dockets are full. No rush at this time.

It'll never go to trial.
 
Link, please?

Giz and the thief should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, or the law will lose its value, and corporate espionage will be unimpeded.

LOL I highly doubt that happened. That rumor was probarly started by some android user. And there is no suprise that was ruined IMO. Because i honestly never thought that prototype was going to be what the real iP4 looks like.

The prototype IMO is a red herring and we will all be suprised at what is unveiled at WWDC :cool:

lol - read up - i was kidding.
 
When Apple asked Jason Chen for their iPhone back. Chen had the audacity to tell Apple they would give it back as long as they got a letter saying it was indeed the prototype iPhone.

THAT is extortion.

Err. That was Brian Lam, Gizmodo’s editor in chief, doing the alleged extortion. Chen was the “journalist” who appeared in the take apart video.

Either way, Jobs is right. The iPhone 4G story is crazy to say the least. I’m sure the courts will be debating both the eventual criminal and civil case for years. Also, has the potential to make some major changes to the journalist shield laws.
 
The investigation is continuing. It's not over yet.

Chen will be found guilty (or will plead to it). I doubt if he'll do any time behind bars, but his career in journalism is over. Same with Brian Lam.

Their own admission to what happened basically seals the deal. It's just a matter of time before the San Mateo County D.A.'s office files charges, probably after the iPhone announcement. Who knows, maybe Steve told them to delay the process. The SMC court system is overloaded, the dockets are full. No rush at this time.

It'll never go to trial.

he's not a journalist.

he was an unemployed nobody that just blogs

these guys don't deserve the title of a journalist IMO
 
Just remember that we haven't heard the full story, just lots of tech news coverage that, given their track record, is probably as wrong as it is right. Wait until the whole story is told, and only then draw judgment.

Naaah, that would be way too prudent of a thing to do. It is so much easier and more fun to simply speculate. ;)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.