[stuaw11]

Police Seize Jason Chen's Computers - Iphone 4 leak - Gizmodo

This piece just made me chuckle because it so whiny like OMG they executed a search warrant on me how dare they! LOL. What did they expect, you bought stolen property for $5000 and announced it to the world like morons!!

I feel no sorrow for Gizmodo or the guy who found it. I hope they get prosecuted because the whole ordeal just stunk of shadiness.

[osquid]

All that bull for a little story on the amazing 4G?

Glad Blackberry doesn't try to attack Kevin for some of the prototypes he's gotten. Apple has too much power for my liking.

[stuaw11]

The difference is that the Apple employee didnt willingly give it to the site to show off like Kevin probably gets from RIM leakers.

Its a little different situation when someone picked it up and took it home with him and then proceeded to sell it for $5000 to Gizmodo.

Way different than the employee sending it to the site to show off purposely.

[Duvi]

It actually seems like only positive can come to Gizmodo. Even if they can prove anything, all that would be thrown out. That's one thing about Cali is that they have some crazyyyyy laws and always different from everyone else.

If anything I see Giz being able to turn around and file a law suit against the state.

[killswitchX13]

I think, its the guy who dropped the 4G at the bar who should be blamed.

+1. that guy must be careless or just an *****. don't know why he was carrying it around with him in public.

[grahamf]

I'm pretty sure the best course of action was to agree with Apple's initial demands. IIRC they did not find out anything else, unless they disassembled the phone after.

[crackvegas78]

I think, its the guy who dropped the 4G at the bar who should be blamed.

How is that? He made a mistake, he didn't do anything to leak the 4G. The guy who found it knew what the right thing to do was and didn't do it. And Giz had to know there was going to be some blowback from this and they went ahead with it anyway.

[stuaw11]

+1. that guy must be careless or just an *****. don't know why he was carrying it around with him in public.

Because apparently they were authorized too. Not saying he shouldnt be drunk doing stupid things, but legally the employee has nothing against him.

It actually seems like only positive can come to Gizmodo. Even if they can prove anything, all that would be thrown out. That's one thing about Cali is that they have some crazyyyyy laws and always different from everyone else.

If anything I see Giz being able to turn around and file a law suit against the state.

It depends how the DA frames the warrant and their argument. The privilege in the Rules of Evidence quoted by Gizmodo's lawyer only applies to preventing warrants to compel reporters to divulge news sources as far as I know. If the DA was looking for direct evidence of a criminal act, ie buying stolen property, then Gizmodo isnt protected under the Shield Law. Apple might already know who the "finder" was, they might not need the source and might just be trying to prove the $5000 transaction and conversations leading to it. The its not for protection of their source and they arent shielded

How is that? He made a mistake, he didn't do anything to leak the 4G. The guy who found it knew what the right thing to do was and didn't do it. And Giz had to know there was going to be some blowback from this and they went ahead with it anyway.

Exactly just a mistake. The guy who found it literally "stole" it for sake of the common law definition of mislaid property. I dont know the CA statute but most follow the common law for the most part.

Calling the CS of a big corporation for something like this OBVIOUSLY gets you nowhere, anyone with half a brain knows this. If he supposedly saw the developers name and facebook on the phone, why didnt the finder go turn it into the police to find the developer or use a phone book to look him up?

Its very clear the finder's intentions were not good ones and were to make a buck off the misfortune of an accident.

[Duvi]

One thing is for sure... He's going to have enemies at the job as I bet the first rule when since this incident was "NO Liquor + 4th gen". Haa

[Duvi]

One thing is for sure... He's going to have enemies at the job as I bet the first rule when since this incident was "NO Liquor + 4th gen". Haa

[Salomondrin]

I told you guys this guy was gonna get it. Steve Jobs is going "Taken" on his ***. I'll applaud his huge balls for posting everything he did tho... HUGE BALLS.

[stuaw11]

Which guy? Reporter on Gimzmodo or the guy who found it? I knew both were in big trouble once Gizmodo started spilling their guts about paying $5000 and the shady nature of the whole story.

[Salomondrin]

Which guy? Reporter on Gimzmodo or the guy who found it? I knew both were in big trouble once Gizmodo started spilling their guts about paying $5000 and the shady nature of the whole story.

GIZMODO and the guy who sold it. The guy who lost it is just gonna lose is job, if he haven't already.

The other 2 guys (Giz and seller) are in deep crap. I don't understand why they told everyone most of the things they said. And WHY on earth would they post the name of the kid that lost the phone in the first place....

[sivan]

Journalism has always been like this. Getting the scoop no matter what it takes and protecting sources. Now, personally, I don't see much social value in reporting about the next iPhone, but it's a scoop. Gizmodo should protect their source and bear the consequences. And Apple should chill, I'd be surprised if they end up pursuing this.

[weblou]

@stuaw11 you mentioned in some previous posts that your in law school or was in law school so you might know if this is true or not.

I think I read that if the "object" is found and an attempt to contact the original owner is made then it's not considered stolen and for this he can't be accused of anything. Is this true??

In any case I think Apple is just making a statement with GIZ. So if it ever happens again people will think real hard before posting on apples secret products.

I think Apple is a little to controlling and power hungry for my liking ( and one of the reasons I avoid using anything apple). But GIZ is not to smart posting the name of the guy like that.

In the end Apple wins, GiZ wins and the guys that got 5K wins lol.... The kid that lost he's job is the only real looser in this mess

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mitchell209]

@stuaw11 you mentioned in some previous posts that your in law school or was in law school so you might know if this is true or not.

I think I read that if the "object" is found and an attempt to contact the original owner is made then it's not considered stolen and for this he can't be accused of anything. Is this true??

In any case I think Apple is just making a statement with GIZ. So if it ever happens again people will think real hard before posting on apples secret products.

I think Apple is a little to controlling and power hungry for my liking ( and one of the reasons I avoid using anything apple). But GIZ is not to smart posting the name of the guy like that.

In the end Apple wins, GiZ wins and the guys that got 5K wins lol.... The kid that lost he's job is the only real looser in this mess

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Well Apple gets a ton of attention because of their secrecy. The rumors start spreading and everyone gets hyped. If I were Apple, I would do everything I could to prevent something like is from happening again.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[weblou]

Yea I agree... And this is why I think they want to make an example of GIZ and the guy that found.

Well Apple gets a ton of attention because of their secrecy. The rumors start spreading and everyone gets hyped. If I were Apple, I would do everything I could to prevent something like is from happening again.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[stuaw11]

@stuaw11 you mentioned in some previous posts that your in law school or was in law school so you might know if this is true or not.

I think I read that if the "object" is found and an attempt to contact the original owner is made then it's not considered stolen and for this he can't be accused of anything. Is this true??

Well the first problem is he shouldnt have taken it home. By the legal definition this is also conversion, or basically converting someone else's property to one's own use with the permission of the property owner.

Something people dont realize is "theft" as you think about "theft/stealing" isnt necessarily the legal definition or standard to meet. It doesnt have to be a malicious intent where someone plots and plans to rob someone or to steal an item from a store. Theft (or more specifically larceny) at common law is basically the taking of another's personal property merely with the intend to deprive them of their property.

Its not a very high standard to meet as long as you prove they intended by their actions to deprive the person of their personal property. I think in this case there's little defense to offer that by the guy taking it home, even despite calling Apple, and selling it off was the intent to deprive Apple/the engineer of their property.

I also don't think the method he used to "try" to find the owner was reasonable though either. Anyone with half a brain knows the hierarchy in big companies and that calling general base-level CS for something major is pretty useless. Furthermore, it was exposed that he learned of the engineer's name from his facebook page on the phone. Why did he not try a phonebook/wgite pages? Why would he not go to the local police and turn it in and say the guys name as the owner? The latter is even more hurtful to his case that he made a reasonable effort to locate the owner when he in fact knew the person's identity.

Now back to the issue you speak of, it's really what is reasonable. The big issue is he picked it up and took it home. the right thing to do was go to the bar management and turn in into the "lost and found" as the common law definition suggest. Its really not reasonable that you find an item in a public establishment and decide to take it home to try to find the owner. Most turn it in to that establishment as being lost, and at worse drop it off to the local police.

No reasonable person would pick up you car keys if you set them down and forgot them, and go decide its ok to go take your car home, make a half-ditch effort to find you, and then go sell it. Its nearly analogous to what happened here.

Its a pretty strong showing the finder didnt have a true intention to find the owner.



Personally, I think its good theyre making an example of people who do shady things like this and then are dumb enough to make it public. I hate to use the words "it's clear" but it is kind of clear this guy who found it saw dollar signs in his eyes and a pay day out of it by his actions. I think its also good theyre not letting Giz hide behind the media excuse, because here they purchased stolen property which is a crime. Sure its not prosecuted a lot, but I think its nice to see media outlets held accountable like any other citizen who did the same acts.

[cardu3851]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Jobs himself in the bar under disguise "misplacing" his phone. But in all seriousness, I don't think Apple will press charges. I think they're just flexing their big muscles to prevent this from happening again. As they say in all the law dramas I watch, they're setting a precedent?

Think about it this way, after all this is said and done, do you think the next person who finds a leaked apple product will do anything? Other than call Apple and return it? I'd take pictures and sell it

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[weblou]

@stuaw11 thanks for the legal explanation. I do agree that the guy who found the phone knew what do with it. Unless he lives in a cave and never uses the net or watches tv. Plus how would he know to contact gizm?? So I'm sure he saw $ sings the same second he picked that baby up.

Like I said not a big fan of apples policies but what is right is right and this time I agree that gizm and the guy that found the phone knew 100% what to do with it.

But in gizm case.... I wasn't that bad of an idea... He's site got more hits and publicity off this than he could ever dream of.
Know it all depends how far apple wants to take this.
I don't think they will push to hard....just make an example of the guy.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[stuaw11]

Know it all depends how far apple wants to take this.
I don't think they will push to hard....just make an example of the guy.

Well the thing is its not up to Apple anymore. Its up to the District Attorney what to do and what to go after.

Its kind of out of Apple's hands now, they have no part in a criminal action (its the State v. "alleged criminal" in a criminal action; person/company v. person/company in a civil action).

[qbnkelt]

I believe there are many of you who are letting the Apple employee "off" without any mention of his irresponsible behaviour. This person is carrying a highly secretive gadget from a highly secretive company and he proceeds to get drunk at a bar and leaves the gadget there.
If I were this person's supervisor at Apple, he'd be G-O-N-E. If he presented himself to me at a similar company doing similar work, I would not hire him. And frankly, I'd be contacting my lawyer to see what action I could take against him.
In this competitive market, with such a prized gadget in his hands, he acted in an outrageously irresponsible manner.
Unless there is some cloak and dagger plan underfoot that hasnt' been discovered yet...

[stuaw11]

It was a mistake, simple as can be. Everyone makes them.

By what we know he was authorized to take it out into the "wild" and use it. Made a simple mistake thats all it is.

And he wont be fired merely because of the media attention, itd look bad on Apple to fire him now and get a lot of negative press Apple doesnt want since theyre announcing the new phone in about 40 days.




And as expected, theyve pushed up WWDC to June 7th from the rumored 22nd, looks like theyll announce the new phone a bit early. Might be the leak, but more likely to combat the competition like the new Android devices.

[mapimages]

Regardless, at least we know that the device is the real deal hardware wise

Apple wouldnt be doing this if it was a junk test hardware device

Thanks for the shady biz giz

[mofoahh]

ever wondered it was left at the bar on purpose.. to create hype for the iphone 4g?