Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

A company needs to legally protect their brand. If that means setting a precedent like this for future similar cases, then it's what needs to be done. Apple is a publicly traded company, so it has obligations, even if that means some bad-will for PR.

In other news, Nokia is littering the streets with prototypes in hopes of some attention.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Hi John

I'm no lawyer but my ex GF is, I remember her saying that (in UK at least) that if you find something and you know who it belongs too (even if you don't, you are obliged to hand it in to the police) and do not return it, it's basically (in law) the same as stealing.
Therefore, if you buy something off a person who has found/stolen an item, you would be receiving stolen goods, especially, as in this case, Gizmodo knew it was lost/found/stolen.

There was a case recently of a couple who found a winning lottery ticket and banked the money...They were arrested, tried, convicted and had their bank accounts emptied to return the money...Not quite the same but similar principle.
I would never buy an apple product but i'm inclined to side with them on this...

Of course, this is assuming USA has similar laws...hmmmm!!!

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

I agree with this on one level, but on another Gizmodo didn't know what they were getting themselves into.
Oh well, ignorance of the law is no excuse.. Gizmodo should have contacted a lawyer to ask what the limits were before posting Apple's intellectual property.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Well.. Apple = 1984 = true.. This only confirms it.

lol! And.. Nokia = 1968 = True ;)

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

:D Excellent Jeff

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

The way I see it gizmodo broke the law and then told everyone about it online.

I'm no fan of Apple, but I'm not sure why people are having a go at Apple about this.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/PEN/3/1/13/5/s485

One who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner, and who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him, is guilty of theft.

It was lost, until the guy sold it. Then it became theft.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

I can understand Shield law being used to protect whistleblowers and other informants that leak information for the benefit of the people, but this whole thing is just about Gizmodo capitalizing on Apple's trade secrets for their own blog's benefit. Nothing more.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

And in another FAIL, Giz broke the news on a day when they had pre-sold the entire days advertising to Kodak for a fixed fee so they didn't earn any extra from the additional 3.6M visitors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/bu...l?ref=business

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Actually thats not where it directly becomes theft, but where it becomes rather more unclear.
As was reported, the guy tried numerous times to return it to apple, and the reports say that he was told by Apple what he has is just a knock-off, and not to bother them about it.
Granted, he was probably only talking to monkeys on apple's helpdesk and only got a TR for his trouble, but if theyre the only point of contact apple will provide to him, then by the law you just quoted he clearly did make "reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and restore the property" by contacting them, whereupon the owner told him the device wasnt theirs and they didnt want it.
Both the guy and Gizmodo clearly had strong evidence the device was Apple's, so no effort was reasonably needed to locate any other potential owner, and he made all reasonable effort to return it to Apple before selling it (as reported, anyway).

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

You mean they approached Apple and asked for more money? =)

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

I like the new iphone design

Im getting one...Thanks Gizmodo

Now go and Rest in Peace

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

apple. because police can't do a thing unless apple makes its claims. so yes, apple wants gizmodo guys go to jail and that is why police have started their actions now.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

too bad I can name only one magazine that lives by your rules. on an other hand i can name a dozen magazines that cant be categorized as journalism by your rules.


...must ...stop... offtopic

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

The article says that he found the owner's facebook page on the phone but he didn't try and contact him through facebook. It seems all he apparently did was dial a few apple phone numbers, wait a couple of weeks and then sell it for 5 grand. If he knew who's it was but couldn't get in contact with them why didn't he turn it into the police, wouldn't that be covered under "reasonable and just efforts"?

To quote a calafornian civil law (http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/C.../6/4/1/s2080.1)

If the owner is unknown or has not claimed the property, the person saving or finding the property shall, if the property is of the value of one hundred dollars ($100) or more, within a reasonable time turn the property over to the police department of the city or city and county, if found therein, or to the sheriff's department of the county if found outside of city limits, and shall make an affidavit, stating when and where he or she found or saved the property, particularly describing it

I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks that it's reasonable to sell something they found in a bar when it obviously is worth a fair amount of money.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

That would be reasonable assertion if the person in question is Joe the plumber.

This guy is knowledgeable. Heknows the ins and outs of the business. He's owned previous gens iphones and are familiar with all sorts of gadgets that his blog covers. He's sure enough of its value to pay $5000 for it.

This guy is connected. I bet he knows 1000 ways to get in touch with Apple internal guys if returning the phone was his true intention. Heck, he can just take a picture of the phone and send it to sjobs@apple.com to get some response. (Yep, that is Jobs' real email address).

Lastly, this guy is motivated. His true intentions were clear. He wrote half a dozens of articles in his blog about it covering just about all aspects you can think about it: the event: the actors and everything to write about the device itself. Including a tear down of the device. If that's not milking something dry, I don't know what is... he's definitely got his $5000 worth.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

yeah. I think he got over 10 miilion hits in like a week or so. Not bad.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Woz - inventor of the best computer Apple produced, the Apple II. It all went downhill with the Mac :p

Find him at www.woz.org

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Maybe Gizmodo will wake up and stop talking out their asses about terrible Apple products.

Who am I kidding? He's probably sucking off Steve right now...

I think it's perfectly acceptable for the police to be pursuing these guys, Gizmodo knowingly and willingly purchased a 'stolen' item and if they are also covering up the person who 'stole' it then they are an accessory.

I say 'stolen' as it wasn't owned by them and they did not report it found, but chose instead to profiteer from its recovery.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Apple strikes back!

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1...7o1_r1_500.png

ref: http://topherchris.com/post/551530253

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

How insanely insecure are Apple products that this phone--presumably carried by someone who has been given serious lectures on security since he was holding a prototype--could be easily broken into enough to get facebook photos of the owner? If my N900 is stolen (found?), the user gets to know the current time and date, and gets a refresher on the numbers 0 through 9 when they see the keypad. (I really need to put my phone number on the case somewhere...my E62 showed my phone number when turned on, and was returned to me by a streetcorner panhandler due to this feature.)

This should be a HUGE embarassment to Apple, not just because of the lost prototype, but because of how easily the private data inside was accessed.

I really don't want to see any criminality here. I am sick of the idea Apple (and others) promote that it is wrong and illegal simply to look inside their products and understand how they work. I doubt there is an outright theft of property here (i.e. someone pickpocketed the phone holder), but there is definitely the possibility that there was no actual middleman between facebookdude and Gizmodo (or that Gizmodo pre-arranged the deal with the phone-finder), which would be something that would cause the type of investigation where you bust down a door and take all the computer equipment. But it is more likely that it happened exactly like Gizmodo describes it, and that Apple is abusing their position of potential crime victim (within the bounds of the law, but outside the bounds of good taste) to demand investigations and ensure that the Gizmodo dude feels sufficient pain and hardship to avoid pissing off Apple in the future and to be a lesson to others.

By the way...I remember about a thousand pre-release articles on the N900 replete with pictures, teardowns, speculation, etc. It is what made me want to buy the thing (and let me understand what I was getting). Apple has a different strategy, which clearly works well for them (but turns me off their products).

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

that new iphone does look very nice, and i suppose ill have to commit some cardinal sin somewhere to get hold of one, but its still gonna be running that icrap OS (made for girls and children!)
even if it is v4.0 multitasking (like an 8 year old symbian phone!)
and still no keyboard!
but at least there trying to compete with nokia
who knows in 10 years time they may even be level! (he he!)

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Didn't someone at Apple get fired for showing Woz the iPad before it came out?

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

:D:D now now...be nice...we can't send all the little kiddies to jail... :p

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Someone should call Fox News and/or CSNBC to tell them they're not "journalists" if your definition is true. Maybe you should take your own advice and "get educated". According to the laws in the state this happened in, this topic has already been decided in the courts, and blog writers are in fact considered to be journalists. (The case this was decided in is even cited in the article linked to in post 1 of this topic.)

The laws as they're written and applied could in fact mean the warrant used in this case in violation of state and federal laws. That doesn't mean they can't still go after the company or the editor for purchasing stolen goods. It just means they can't use anything found via the warrant as evidence, and local government agencies may be sued for issuing and executing the illegal warrant in the first place.

Personally, I think the Gizmodo chaps could easily see a fine, or possibly some jail time for the charges of purchasing stolen goods. Especially since they basically admitted to doing it to the world just a few days ago. This will just muddy the waters and cause more problems during the trial. I highly doubt any of them will spend time in jail though, and the real winners will be the same as most court cases, the lawyers. :rolleyes:

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Shame on Gizmodo guy for supporting apple :D
Now i think he going to hate apple for it :D

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Wrong. Apple doesn't need to do anything for police to look into theft cases.

The matter of fact is that Gizmodo knew they were purchasing a stolen item, and at best the guy only allegedly attempted to contact Apple (and no proof of this). Even if he was unable to return the item to Apple, he should've gone to the police and leave it there, rather than start a bidding war between Engadget and Gizmodo.

This will also easily be proven by going through the email records (which is why the computers were seized in the first place).

They had it coming.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Good write up from legal perspective:

http://www.technovia.co.uk/2010/04/h...one-story.html

Seems like Gizmodo is screwed.

Unfortunately this seems like a calculated risk by the higher ups in gawker media (giz's parent company), at the cost of sacrificing their foot soldiers (chen).

I hope they get fined to the fullest extent of the law :D

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

I'm skeptical of that. To be in the device blogging business as long as they have and they were all ignorant of probable consequences? That would be one naive staff.

Please explain further. Have you seen the warrant? I'm betting it was worded to support current police action.

In the end, protection of journalism sources won't be the real issue. It will all come down to the purchase of the prototype.

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

iphone 4g Prerelease (Dr. Evil), i demand 100 million dollars muahaha

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

All the gizmodo protectors, liberals and apple haters are currently hoping that police overstept its bounds by invading Chen's house which is allegedly an extension of Gizmodo's press office. My understanding is that California law protects journalists from having to hand over their sources by having their property seized, however in this case the issue is not revealing sources, but acquisition of stolen goods, in which case the California law protects didly squat.

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

This might also very well turn into a case about theft or misappropriation of a trade secret.
Glad someone stops the irreponsible, no-respect, news-at-any-price-faction.

Re: Apple wants to send the Gizmodo guys to jail
 

Totally, really didn't like the original look but this one looks like my old Sony Ericsson W880i which is a sexy sexy phone.

As you said, shame it'll be running iPhoneOS

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

lol.. Apple vs Gizmodo on the daily show:

http://www.9to5mac.com/files/u3/Picture%2029.png

http://tv.gawker.com/5526868/jon-ste...f-gizmodo-case

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

Seeing as servers were siezed without him present, what would be the procedure for police removing these? My server is running 24-7, locked, and has no screen attached. Therefore, would the police just pull the power cable out? Does that not constitute damage?

Just wondering!

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

Technically speaking, they are interested in the data, not your hardware (unless there is an injunction to stop you from doing whatever you're doing, in which case seizing your hardware may be a way to prevent that). Just like any electrical goods, physical access trumps logical access. The power switch, on most computers, will initiate the shutdown sequence -- I expect they use it, and after an indefinite period of time, they'll pull the plug.

The reasoning is probably that the likeliness that damage will occur, combined with the factor that the damage that might occur won't be too disruptive is less important than leaving the item under control by the owner. In one word: no.

Re: Gizmodo facing legal action due to iPhone fiasco
 

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/14/...ant-affidavit/