Gizmodo iPhone 4G author's computers siezed

[Deeko]

http://gizmodo.com/5524843/police-seize-jason-chens-computers

Gizmodo contesting that this was illegal.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.

 

[Phobic9]

Meh, if Gizmodo.com was shut down today I personally wouldn't care.

 

[Fox5]

Heh, thought buying the iphone prototype might be illegal.

The story so far is:
Guy finds iphone 4g prototype in bar, tries to contact apple, is unable to.
Guy contacts gizmodo, sells them iphone prototype for an assload of money. I imagine if his name is found on those computers, he'll be getting a visit from the police next.
Gizmodo claims they had no way of knowing if the iphone was real or a convincing fake, thus they aren't at fault for purchasing it.
After tearing it apart, gizmodo figures out it's real. Tells apple if they want it back to file an official claim.
Then this.

 

[Deeko]

Heh, thought buying the iphone prototype might be illegal.

The story so far is:
Guy finds iphone 4g prototype in bar, tries to contact apple, is unable to.
Guy contacts gizmodo, sells them iphone prototype for an assload of money. I imagine if his name is found on those computers, he'll be getting a visit from the police next.
Gizmodo claims they had no way of knowing if the iphone was real or a convincing fake, thus they aren't at fault for purchasing it.
After tearing it apart, gizmodo figures out it's real. Publishes a story on it, earning themselves a huge amount of traffic and publicity.Tells apple if they want it back to file an official claim.
Then this.

Added a very important missing part of the timeline.

 

[abaez]

Once they opened it and found out it's real, they proceeded to make a huge post about it. Remember they had it for a week. I think at that point they knew (or should have known) they were in possession of stolen property and should have returned it. But the allure of the ad dollars and site hits was too great. Too bad for them.

lol, I like the response - "Jason is a journalist..." one who buys something under sketchy circumstances, proceeds to write about it with a weak reason on why they posted the information, and then cries wolf when this happens. Did he really think Apple and its millions of dollars riding with each iPhone launch was going to just let this go?

 

[tatteredpotato]

Once they opened it and found out it's real, they proceeded to make a huge post about it. Remember they had it for a week. I think at that point they knew (or should have known) they were in possession of stolen property and should have returned it. But the allure of the ad dollars and site hits was too great. Too bad for them.

lol, I like the response - "Jason is a journalist..." one who buys something under sketchy circumstances, proceeds to write about it with a weak reason on why they posted the information, and then cries wolf when this happens. Did he really think Apple and its millions of dollars riding with each iPhone launch was going to just let this go?

They gave it back to Apple once they determined it was authentic didn't they?

 

[Deeko]

They gave it back to Apple once they determined it was authentic didn't they?

haha after they had examined it fully enough to write and publish a story worthy of millions of page views, you mean. If they were really concerned with not having stolen property and all that they would have not paid the sum they did.

 

[shortylickens]

The funny thing is, when I first saw those articles I didnt give a shitfuck. Now that I know its all illicit and shady I find it much more interesting.

OK, after half a day of reading I have this to say:
Gizmodo is clearly full of shit, and I suspect they will suffer dearly for it.

 

[CTrain]

I think anyone who criticize Gizmodo for the whole ordeal is a hyprocite.
Don't tell with a straight face that you didn't enjoy reading about the whole fiasco.
Wrong or right, they garnered insane amount of publicity for the story.
Isn't that what a gadget site suppose to do ?
This story will live in infamy.

On another note, I hope Gizmodo made a boatload of cash from all the publicity because I have a feeling that Apple will take these guys to court.
Even if Apple didn't think they have a chance in winning, they have such deep pockets that they will take them to court anyway.
These guys at Giz will spend a boatload of money on lawyers.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Well I was interested in the article. Are they douchey? Yeah? Was Engadget douchey too? Yeah? They were bitter as fvck and tried to nitpick about the "teardown" being un-ifixit and Gizmodo being incompetent.

The point is everyone enjoyed it. Everyone wished they could've gotten their hands on it. Oh well.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Wasn't it Gizmodo who offered $5K for pics of the iPad before it was released?

That pissed off Apple too IIRC...

 

[Deeko]

I think anyone who criticize Gizmodo for the whole ordeal is a hyprocite.
Don't tell with a straight face that you didn't enjoy reading about the whole fiasco.
Wrong or right, they garnered insane amount of publicity for the story.
Isn't that what a gadget site suppose to do ?
This story will live in infamy.

On another note, I hope Gizmodo made a boatload of cash from all the publicity because I have a feeling that Apple will take these guys to court.
Even if Apple didn't think they have a chance in winning, they have such deep pockets that they will take them to court anyway.
These guys at Giz will spend a boatload of money on lawyers.

I didn't. When the story first was released with the basic information - yea, I read it, same as I would a story about any new phone just being released. Could I have waited? Yep. Did my life really change for the better from reading it? Nope. Did I find the dozen follow-up stories aggravating - from stories linking Apple Security to Nazis, to the report about the guy who lost the phone (come on, that one was messed up, almost like they were trying to deflect Apple's ire from them to him), yep, it got real old, real fast.

Let’s be blunt - what Gizmodo did was illegal. They knowingly purchased stolen property, and even if they claim innocence by ignorance on that one - once they realized it was stolen, they proceeded to publish that information on a public website - with full intent of making a large profit on that stolen item. This is very illegal, both criminal and civil. Whatever they get, they deserve.

 

[JS80]

Gizmodo hit the jackpot twice in a month. Nuts.

 

[pm]

I was going to criticize Gizmodo and then decided that CTrain is right... I'd be a hypocrite... Let the Santa Clara DA sort it out.

I thought this was pretty funny:
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/thatlost4gphone/