Police Seize Gizmodo Editor’s Computers

even if the worse case is true: the guy stole the phone, Gizmodo bought it knowing he stole it... I would like to think the DA has alot more important things to do than investigate the theft of a phone that has already been returned
 
While I admittedly like the idea of a G4 Iphone. I want one less now because of this story. Apple is discrediting themself.

I will buy in if Apple comes to the Defense of the Reporter and makes it good. Otherwise I am less likely to buy another Iphone for myself or my Wife.
 
xaustinx said:
Here's how i see it.

#1 The guy who found the phone tried to locate and return the phone to whoever it belonged to. The night he found it, he was able to see a facebook page of the owner, and the next morning Apple had sent a command to wipe the firmware (most likely via MobileMe).

#2 The guy spends the next 3 weeks trying to get apple to take him seriously when he says "i found an iphone prototype, i'm sure you guys want this back, how can i return it to you." When they find this guy, i'm sure he'll have the ticket # to show this, email correspondence to back this up, etc. If he didn't have the foresight to do this beforehand, i'm SURE Gizmodo's counsel advised/forced him to do so before they were given the phone.

#3 Gizmodo acquires the phone. I had to assume that the people working at Gawker Media, and Gizmodo aren't idiots. Once they acquired the phone, i'm fairly certain they spent the next week calling apple (while recording the calls), emailing apple (keeping a copy) send a letter to apple (certified mail), etc.. etc.. So when the hammer drops they've got protection. Also, I assume that Gizmodo's counsel convinced the person they gave money to, that their needed to be a contract explicitly stating that they’re not buying the phone. Only the right to seek out the potential owner(s), the right to report on it, etc, etc.

#4 After 3 weeks of the principle “finder” attempting to contact apple, and another week of Gizmodo trying to find the potential owner, Gizmodo turned to their primary means of communication; i.e. web blog, to find the potential owner; and they were successful, and they phone I assume is now in Apple’s possession.

What they’re doing by seizing Mr.Chen’s computers is looking for any email, correspondence, ANYTHING which makes it clear that he knew it was apple’s prototype, and that he had one intention, to purchase it.

I highly doubt their going to find that, if it were me; I’d ask to see it in person, and if I were convinced; I’d immediately bring a lawyer into the room, and lock the doors.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
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You know... I'm thinking now that the Apple guy that lost the phone was trying to cover his ass, by wiping the phone and then not disclosing that HE LOST the phone after a night of boozing. Only after Giz broke the story did he concoct some story about theft since the cat is well out of the bag and Apple as an entity will have to address it now.

If Apple really new about the missing phone from day one... why'd they ignore the finder's attempt to return it? Yep me thinks this Powell guy was covering his ass. His wiping the phone is proof that he knew he lost it. Cuz you see, if you missed placed your phone in your home, you don't go off wiping the firmware immediately right?
 
While the discussion over this case is still raging in the forums and around the web, Wired got the opinion of a legal expert to weigh in on the legality of the search in the prototype iPhone case.

The raid was part of an investigation into the leak of a prototype iPhone that the site obtained for a blockbuster story last week. Now, a legal expert has raised questions about the legality of the warrant used in the raid.
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Somnambulator said:
so many terrible posts, assumptions, and retarded people here. whether or not the DA is "in appl'es pocket" is irrelevant. There is the basis and potential for a crime to have been committed, that much is perfectly clear. the only way to investigate this possibility...


your thoughts on apple are meaningless. your thoughts on police are meaningless. your thoughts on THE LAW...are MEANINGLESS. Oh, and ignorance is not an excuse. The police detectives and DA may review the evidence collected and it may exonerate all parties involved and not file charges. this is just the 1st step of an investigation...gather evidence. search warrants are issued all the time that bear no fruit and the cases are sometimes dropped (or put in cold case bin :D).

for the record, i largely hate everything apple does, creates, or says. the law, however, is supposed to be blind and doesnt give a shit if the ipad is a huge waste of money.
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You should be banned from using the word meaningless for at least a month. You piled on an amazing amount of hyperbole in your post. Try the decaf.:D

In your long rant you only took into account the actions of the DA and the laws pertaining to stolen property. Their is also the extra factor of Chen being a journalist and limits the law puts on searches and seizures.

More importantly there is what is legal and what is within the power of government to do and what is reasonable to do. Just because a DA may have the power to do something doesn't mean he should do it. Any reasonable person would look at this and consider an overreaction. And it does matter what the average person thinks because if the DA can't prove it to a jury he has no case. Whether the letter of the law supports his interruption of events or not.

As for Apple having power of the DA? Hell ya they do. San Mateo is small, law and order county and when big company pulls the strings they listen. Christ, we are talking about a county that regular sends 2 - 3 squad cars for routine traffic stops.
 
Haha@Apple.

“Congress was contemplating a situation where someone might claim that the journalist was committing a crime [in order to seize materials from them],” Granick says.

California state law also provides protections to prevent journalists from being forced to disclose sources or unpublished information related to their work.

“California law is crystal clear that bloggers are journalists, too,” she says.
 
Among the items seized from Chen’s house were four computers and two servers, an iPhone, digital cameras, records from a Bank of America checking account and the printout of an e-mail sent to Chen from Gawker Media Managing Editor Gaby Darbyshire earlier that day
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Explain to me why they needed his bank records?
 
LOL fromt he link by Stevo.

Apple is on the steering committee for the REACT task force that raided Chen’s house. Formed in 1997, REACT is a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies tasked with investigating computer- and internet-related crimes.

Hello @ abuse of authority!!
 
thesmokingman said:
LOL fromt he link by Stevo.

Apple is on the steering committee for the REACT task force that raided Chen’s house. Formed in 1997, REACT is a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies tasked with investigating computer- and internet-related crimes.

Hello @ abuse of authority!!
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Since when is Apple a local/state/federal agency?
 
thesmokingman said:
LOL fromt he link by Stevo.

Apple is on the steering committee for the REACT task force that raided Chen’s house. Formed in 1997, REACT is a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies tasked with investigating computer- and internet-related crimes.

Hello @ abuse of authority!!
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conflict of intrest.... why not let the real police handle it?

apple is going to catch a ton of bad press of this and hurt thier bottom line.
 
ShadowStriker said:
Since when is Apple a local/state/federal agency?
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Huh? Where does it say they are an agency???? It says they are on the steering committee which is probably some form of a civilian voice using Apples experience in IT to I dunno, help the cops do this IT hacking...

What I took that to mean is that they have the ear of a shitload of cops and they said stuff to the little birdy and that birdy broke some doors down. ;)
 
Regardless of how this whole mess turns out, the takeaway for me is I will never buy any Apple product under any circumstances. Nice job by Apple marketing....
 
It sux that the dude paid 5 large for the thing, to then give it back and have his rigs stoled by the cops and himself getting busted, and now he needs a new front door and possibly a good lawyer if there is any dodgy shit on any of his pc's.

Best 5 grand he has ever spent I bet.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
It sux that the dude paid 5 large for the thing, to then give it back and have his rigs stoled by the cops and himself getting busted, and now he needs a new front door and possibly a good lawyer if there is any dodgy shit on any of his pc's.

Best 5 grand he has ever spent I bet.
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They violated his constitutional rights as a journalist. There's nothing they can do to him, and well this will give him a great chance at a counter-suit. Hello retirement fund, lol.
 
This is pathetic.. what kind of DA would pursue this case and even worse what dumbass judge would approve.
 
I could only imagine Job's frothing rage over the whole situation. Apple seems to be a very reactionary company when it comes to bad press/bad mouthing.
 
thesmokingman said:
They violated his constitutional rights as a journalist. There's nothing they can do to him, and well this will give him a great chance at a counter-suit. Hello retirement fund, lol.
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exactly, and even if they do find anything, that raid/search/evidence will be invalid. Idiot cops
 
I'm calling it now, they are going to make a movie out of this whole thing sometime in the near future
 
I really think Apple is going about this the wrong way. Once they were aware the phone was gone, they should have just called the phone and asked for it back, then remote wiped it... Days went by before Apple admitted the thing was one of their devices. Was Apple just hoping the thing disappeared once they figured out it was lost?!?

Gizmodo could have been buying a real iPhone 4 or it might have been a Chinese knock off.
 
What a dick move on the part of the cops/DA, I hope this backfires in their face. Even if Gizmodo did something illegal, the cops/DA went far beyond what they would have done if the phone wasn't an Apple prototype. Also, it appears to me that they clearly did not have the right to search his house since he was a journalist. Cops only enforcing laws that fit their agenda? Craaazzzzzyyyy:rolleyes:
 
Even if evidence on the computers suggests that the journalist knew he was purchasing/receiving “stolen” property, given the fact that the evidence was obtained illegally by using an invalid search warrant, it can never be used as evidence in court. Furthermore, having returned the phone to the original owner, without incident, the DA would have a really soft case to prosecute anyone for possession of stolen property. Purchasing/receiving stolen property is NOT an open and shut case. Without refutable/usable evidence and intent, charges are commonly dropped.
 
Im no Giz fan, but this is bullshit. Shows the power Apple has, almost Nazi like.
 
IMO the only thing gizmodo had to do was pay for ACCESS to the phone, instead they had to swing their cock around about how they actually bought it. And this whole us vs the man thing is pretty stupid, just cause you say a warrant is illegal or you call yourself a journalist doesn't make it so. They HAD to know this process would unfold. Acting all shocked and outraged and shit.

Apple is stupid for going after him too. they could have spun this into a great marketing thing and instead they've turned into what everyone cried MS was in the mid/late 90s.
 
I'm shocked at the number of people defending Gizmodo and the guy who picked this phone up and decided to sell it. They're both douchebags IMO, regardless of the technicalities.

And this is potentially corporate espionage, the prototype likely cost several $1000s to produce so its value is not trivial, and I think it's fairly likely a crime has been commited by at least one of the two parties. Why should the police not get involved? This case is about the theft of a pre-production phone with a fairly high value, potential espionage concerns, and high public profile.
 
Apple doesn't care if this was legal or not. The main purpose is to intimidate anyone from doing this again. Apple can easily afford the legal cost, but can Gizmodo?
 
Torquemada XP said:
I'm interested in whether or not Gizmodo's painfully obvious pro-Apple bias will remain after this entire debacle is played out.
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If Apple wins that one less fanboy-ahoy website hopefully. If the fanboy site wins, well that's great too.

Either way it's good :D
 
Spazilton said:
However I do believe you could be held in contempt, and charged with Obstruction.

Hence why you should always use a doulbe encrypted volume.
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No you wouldnt be. The only case in which you could be forced to turn over a password would be if you have already demonstrated that you have the password. Otherwise providing the password would be a form of self incrimination and would be protected.
 
I love all of this shit. We care so much because it is in the public eye when far worse things happen daily to less popular people.

We're on top of it! Post some more! =)
 
Sounds like Steve Ballmer was pissed that Gizmodo was running all of the press on the iPhone not the next gen WinMo phones and called the cops
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Balmer pulled out his iPhone and tried to call, but the call was dropped...
 
Wouldn't Apple have to report it stolen for the DA to start all this? Imagine this had been a publicity stunt by Apple and Gizmodo, then the DA sees the news and starts all this over a phone that was never reported stolen.

As someone mentioned a few days back over some other newspost, you can say whatever you want over the internet, that doesn't constitute proof that a crime was commited. In order for a judge to issue a search warrant, they'd need some kind of evidence, wouldn't they?

Dunno, I don't know how stuff works over there.
 
was the iphone reported stolen? if not apple are douchebags
 
Well, if Gizmodo remains a pro-Apple site, we will know it was all a publicity stunt.

If this is a publicity stunt, all of the involved Apple Tards better pay back the taxpayer money that was wasted during this charade. Police overtime, court time, DA time, REACT Team involvement.
 
This won't hurt Apple at all. The people that buy apple products don't care. Well, maybe they will claim to care as they drop a few Benjamins for the new iphone.
 
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