Teen Risking Jail Selling White iPhones?

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A seventeen year old kid has made $130,000 selling white iPhone 4 parts to people that can’t wait until Apple sells them officially. The bad news is that now he’s receiving legal threats from an anti-counterfeit / trademark firm. Oops.

I got an email from a private investigator accusing me of selling stolen goods, which I'm 100 percent sure is not the case. They are some kind of anti-counterfeit/trademark firm, which sounds ridiculous, similar to what Apple is bringing up to remove White iPhone 4 Listings on eBay. I don't know how this legal stuff works.
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It seems like he was buying the actual white iphone parts direct from foxxcon (or someone who was stealing them from the line). There's a lot of legal mess there. Now on the other hand, it's hard to verify that this "private investigator" is actually working for apple and not just a smart scam artist. Furthermore, depending on the agreements (or horrific mistake of the agreement) these could be parts he is legally purchasing.

I can't imagine spending 300$ for the complete conversion, but evidently about a thousand people have.

I'm sure we'll here more about the story in the future to tell us what actually happened.
 
AFTER WE GAVE YOU A NEW DORM with ONLY SIX PEOPLE PER 1 WASHROOM. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON EMPLOYEES. WAIT EMPLOYEES IS TOO GOOD TO DESCRIBE YOU. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON GARBAGE.

-Steve Jobbs
Sent from my iPhone
 
lol, disgruntled foxconn employees stealing from the assembly line I see
 
WBurchnall said:
AFTER WE GAVE YOU A NEW DORM with ONLY SIX PEOPLE PER 1 WASHROOM. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON EMPLOYEES. WAIT EMPLOYEES IS TOO GOOD TO DESCRIBE YOU. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON GARBAGE.

-Steve Jobbs
Sent from my iPhone
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Made me chuckle.

Dirty jerks...
 
If they're apple marked, they could be considered an apple third party device. In that case, he'd have to pay licensing fees. If they're not 'marked', it makes sense that he's in the clear.

The most intelligent thing to do at this point would be to move all of his capitol into a safe account, get a lawyer on retainer, and give them a verbal middle finger.

No good can come from complying with thuggish demands.
 
TheCapulet said:
If they're apple marked, they could be considered an apple third party device. In that case, he'd have to pay licensing fees. If they're not 'marked', it makes sense that he's in the clear.

The most intelligent thing to do at this point would be to move all of his capitol into a safe account, get a lawyer on retainer, and give them a verbal middle finger.

No good can come from complying with thuggish demands.
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Maybe these are the white ones apple is throwing away because they don't like them and this guy selling them and there isn't anything wrong with them. :confused:
 
"He can take heart in the fact that Steve Jobs, along with his partner Steve Wozniak, helped to fund their first business selling "Blue Boxes" that let users make illegal long distance telephone calls."

Great closing statement. Pot, meet kettle.
 
and the workers in China from what I can tell. I am proud to say I own absolutely no Apple products. :)

On a lighter note, I can top his "inside" contact for parts. Back in the 60's my uncle, now retired, watched a fellow worker steal a 1968 Camero, part by part,all to win a bet. No he never got caught, and was smart enough not to sell it, and keep his mouth shut.
One piece at a Time - as the Johnny Cash song went.
 
Kenworth said:
"He can take heart in the fact that Steve Jobs, along with his partner Steve Wozniak, helped to fund their first business selling "Blue Boxes" that let users make illegal long distance telephone calls."

Great closing statement. Pot, meet kettle.
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/win

Steve jobs has at one point or another done nearly everything that he sues people for.
 
selling stolen goods whether you know about it or not is still selling stolen goods. just because the guy knows a guy who works for a company doesn't mean that the stuff is legit. I hope he and everyone else who sells those parts gets fined up the wazoo and gets some jail time just because I hearing about that is super entertaining.

Just like Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s who was sued by the RIAA and was ordered to pay 1.92million over $24 in music.

I don't care about the pocketbooks of big business but stuff like that is funny to me
 
Imma get some Xbox 360's right off the assembly line and re-sell them. I'm sure Microsoft would have no issue.
 
Arcygenical said:
Imma get some Xbox 360's right off the assembly line and re-sell them. I'm sure Microsoft would have no issue.
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I don't see why they would, it's not microsoft making them but I believe foxconn assembles them so pretty much foxconn will throw you off the roof and say you got real depressed and jumped.
 
munkle said:
I don't see why they would, it's not microsoft making them but I believe foxconn assembles them so pretty much foxconn will throw you off the roof and say you got real depressed and jumped.
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I'm stealing sales from their market. I can't seem them being too happy with that.
 
$279 just to change the color of your G.D. iPhone? How f'n stupid are apple iDIOTs?
 
Arcygenical said:
I'm stealing sales from their market. I can't seem them being too happy with that.
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Yeah but they would be last ones to really care, foxconn or whoever makes them is going to throw someone off the roof first since they are losing the most from it, the actual cost of the console, MS losing nothing but doesn't gain any profits (either way somebody is getting thrown off the off, foxconn has rep to protect).
 
robble said:
$279 just to change the color of your G.D. iPhone? How f'n stupid are apple iDIOTs?
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stupid enough to pay $279 to change the color of their iPhones lol

and probably put it in a $50 case that you can only see the screen through lol.
 
Arcygenical said:
Imma get some Xbox 360's right off the assembly line and re-sell them. I'm sure Microsoft would have no issue.
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If you steal them off the production line then it may not hurt Microsoft. Say MS wants 100,000 units shipped. You steal 5 off the line. Foxconn then needs to make an additional 5 in order to meet the 100,000 unit shipped goal. Now if you steal them after they have been shipped (or counted), then ya you would be stealing from MS.

So in other words, depending on where in the line these are being taken dictates who's loosing.
 
MS makes their cash off game licensing, they lose cash on the consoles so they can get more from game sales.
 
darament said:
selling stolen goods whether you know about it or not is still selling stolen goods. just because the guy knows a guy who works for a company doesn't mean that the stuff is legit. I hope he and everyone else who sells those parts gets fined up the wazoo and gets some jail time just because I hearing about that is super entertaining.

Just like Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s who was sued by the RIAA and was ordered to pay 1.92million over $24 in music.

I don't care about the pocketbooks of big business but stuff like that is funny to me
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Yeah except the goods were stolen in another country, crime didn't happen on US soil. US attorney won't give a fuck because he can't do anything about it. Plus before you scream extradite him to china (i assume that's where the foxconn factory would be), it would take a huge burden of proof. Also, I don't think we extradite for non-violent crimes.

In short, I'm glad, fuck Apple.
 
westrock2000 said:
So in other words, depending on where in the line these are being taken dictates who's loosing.
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Nonetheless, white backed iphone 4's are a currently unreleased product. I suppose a better analogy would be someone selling "appropriated" Xbox 720's (or any other fictional product, your choice) before an official release. Believe it or not, there is a market for white iphone 4's (obviously, as per the article) which I'm sure Apple does not want squandered pre-release.

Granted, a few hundred thousand to Apple is nothing - but you can bet just about any other company would respond in a similar vein.
 
westrock2000 said:
If you steal them off the production line then it may not hurt Microsoft. Say MS wants 100,000 units shipped. You steal 5 off the line. Foxconn then needs to make an additional 5 in order to meet the 100,000 unit shipped goal. Now if you steal them after they have been shipped (or counted), then ya you would be stealing from MS.

So in other words, depending on where in the line these are being taken dictates who's loosing.
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Not necessarily. MS ultimately still has to pay for the parts that go inside of the unit (ATi, IBM, etc.) since even Foxconn doesn't get them for free. Granted, 5 out of 100,000 units might not raise much suspicion (and one could probably use the "QC fail" excuse to get away with it), but it's still taking from MS in the end no matter where in the production line it's in.
 
EvilWays said:
Not necessarily. MS ultimately still has to pay for the parts that go inside of the unit (ATi, IBM, etc.) since even Foxconn doesn't get them for free. Granted, 5 out of 100,000 units might not raise much suspicion (and one could probably use the "QC fail" excuse to get away with it), but it's still taking from MS in the end no matter where in the production line it's in.
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Foxconn would have to pay for all the parts themselves. People who buy products from the manufacturer don't pay for parts or raw materials, they pay for fully manufactured products that are shipped. If it is stolen from the factory before being counted for shipping, Foxconn is out the money, not MS. MS only pays for what gets put on a truck to them, anything before that they don't lose anything on.

Now comes the fun part, does Foxconn likely build that shrink into the cost of the manufactured unit and therefor not lose anything? Probably, but MS would pay that price even if the shrink didn't occur so technically they still aren't losing anything.
 
if he made enough for college even at 300/500 bucks a pop he needs to have to have sold 200 - 400 sets not 5 out of 100,000. If someone were stealing off the assembly line that would get noticed...
 
bencorn said:
Foxconn would have to pay for all the parts themselves. People who buy products from the manufacturer don't pay for parts or raw materials, they pay for fully manufactured products that are shipped. If it is stolen from the factory before being counted for shipping, Foxconn is out the money, not MS. MS only pays for what gets put on a truck to them, anything before that they don't lose anything on.

Now comes the fun part, does Foxconn likely build that shrink into the cost of the manufactured unit and therefor not lose anything? Probably, but MS would pay that price even if the shrink didn't occur so technically they still aren't losing anything.
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Not completely true specially not in today's market where parts travel around the world a several times before an assembler gets them. For example, the video and CPU chips in the Xbox are Microsoft's IP, manufactured at Microsoft's behest. It's in their best interest to pay for the for the chips from TSMC and provide those to Foxconn; profits for Foxconn would be on an up-charge for the cost of manufacturing the machine. By removing the cost of the the CPU or GPU you remove a % of the manufacturing that Foxconn would collect profits from.

So anyone stealing a CPU or GPU from Microsoft would actually be stealing from Microsoft because they have already paid for those parts.
 
A lot of this discussion is conjecture if you ask me.

If he is actually selling parts stolen from the production line, (whether he stole them or not) then yes, this is criminal, plain and simple. I believe the crime is called "receiving of stolen goods" or just "receiving".

If these are third party parts made for him, but branded with apple logos, etc, it may just be a trademark infringement, which is not criminal, but can lead to being sued in civil court.

If the parts have no apple logos or markings on them, then - while apple may not like it - they don't have a legal leg to stand on. They may just be trying to scare him into stopping, and could even succeed to put the pressure on by using the "deepest pockets" method, where you keep them in court whether you are right or wrong, until they giove up because they can no longer afford legal representation. (really shitty, in other words)

We don't know the details of what is going on right now.

The only thing that is clear right now is that his customers are fucking morons.
 
WBurchnall said:
AFTER WE GAVE YOU A NEW DORM with ONLY SIX PEOPLE PER 1 WASHROOM. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON EMPLOYEES. WAIT EMPLOYEES IS TOO GOOD TO DESCRIBE YOU. YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FOX CON GARBAGE.

-Steve Jobbs
Sent from my iPhone
Click to expand...

Sorry mister Jobs sir but I needed to supplement my my $2 a day job.
 
The folks at the Observer have an update to the story about the kid threatened by Apple over selling white iPhone parts.

According to Lam's attorney, private investigator Jimmy Robbins, who first contacted Lam, was working for Apple. But when Jaffe called Robbins, he was informed that Robbins was off the case, and Apple was handling it personally. "Now we're just waiting to hear from them officially," said Jaffe.
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Zarathustra[H];1036448238 said:
A lot of this discussion is conjecture if you ask me.

If he is actually selling parts stolen from the production line, (whether he stole them or not) then yes, this is criminal, plain and simple. I believe the crime is called "receiving of stolen goods" or just "receiving".

If these are third party parts made for him, but branded with apple logos, etc, it may just be a trademark infringement, which is not criminal, but can lead to being sued in civil court.

If the parts have no apple logos or markings on them, then - while apple may not like it - they don't have a legal leg to stand on. They may just be trying to scare him into stopping, and could even succeed to put the pressure on by using the "deepest pockets" method, where you keep them in court whether you are right or wrong, until they giove up because they can no longer afford legal representation. (really shitty, in other words)

We don't know the details of what is going on right now.

The only thing that is clear right now is that his customers are fucking morons.
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http://www.whiteiphone4now.com/customer-shots/close-up-photos-from-whiteiphone4nowcom/
They look mighty branded to me. The parts are either genuine and stolen or counterfeit. Either way this kid's likely going to end up spending all the money he made on lawyers.
 
Steve Jobs will have the livers of whomever was stealing those parts and his/her family.
 
it baffles me that individuals speak up for corporate rights.

They don't and won't ever care about you until you stop believing the bullshit company line.

Apple and any other corporation would fire your ass in a heartbeat if it meant more profits. Which is why Apple and other companies stomp on human rights in the name of profit.

Even if this kid stole from apple, fuck apple, and fuck foxconn. Stop accepting companies raping people for profits. Jesus H Profit.
 
stealthy123 said:
it baffles me that individuals speak up for corporate rights.

They don't and won't ever care about you until you stop believing the bullshit company line.

Apple and any other corporation would fire your ass in a heartbeat if it meant more profits. Which is why Apple and other companies stomp on human rights in the name of profit.

Even if this kid stole from apple, fuck apple, and fuck foxconn. Stop accepting companies raping people for profits. Jesus H Profit.
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Theft, and/or counterfeiting is OK if the victim is rich?

Corporations are now and always have been pathological, but theft, and/or counterfeiting are still illegal, and immoral. Even if the victim is rich.
 
Lets see; Apple orders up say 10,000 prototype white iPhone cases, takes the first thousand or so cases and decided to cancel the contract. Foxcomm has money wrapped up in these test units. The contract has been cancelled, they either recycle them for less than one percent of their value or they develop contacts and sell them to iPhone users. It is possible that Foxcomm is selling the parts illegally but I really doubt that.
As for the iPhone users? No need to worry, after all, they are bright enough to own an iPhone, and use the internet, they might be able to actually take apart a case or get a real gadget geek to do it for them.
Using a third party to host the sale, this is classic American greed, true red, white and blue. I applaud the kid! I really doubt that Apple will ever be dumb enough to take it to court. And if they do, the kid should counter sue and take Job’s turtleneck away.
 
GORANKAR said:
Theft, and/or counterfeiting is OK if the victim is rich?

Corporations are now and always have been pathological, but theft, and/or counterfeiting are still illegal, and immoral. Even if the victim is rich.
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You are confusing corporations with people. A corporation by definition cannot be a victim unless you subscribe to the concept of corporate personhood, and if you do, we have nothing more to discuss.
 
kzaske said:
Lets see; Apple orders up say 10,000 prototype white iPhone cases, takes the first thousand or so cases and decided to cancel the contract. Foxcomm has money wrapped up in these test units. The contract has been cancelled, they either recycle them for less than one percent of their value or they develop contacts and sell them to iPhone users.
Click to expand...

And this is probably whats happening. but I would seriously expect the contract to say something like "any remaining units will be destroyed."

Axe
 
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