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Gizmodo Blows Whistle On 4G iPhone Loser
Stoobalou writes "Not content with its iPhone scoop, Gizmodo has probably ruined the career of a young engineer. The tech blog last night exposed the name of the hapless Apple employee who had one German beer too many and left a prototype iPhone G4 in a California bar some 20 miles from Apple's Infinite Loop campus. Was that really necessary?"
It also came out that they paid $5K for the leaked prototype and that Apple wants it back.
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You know, I find that completely over-the-top.
If the story is accurate, then what's the point of exposing the poor sod's name?
What purpose does that serve? The guy's obviously had a rough week; why pile on and make it worse?
It's likely that he's going to be terminated (from his employment, not physically), if he hasn't been already. I'm sure there's some "handling company materials" guideline or somesuch on the books at Apple that will be enforced.
So why expose him publicly?
I don't get it. This just seems like nonsense to me.
The summary is kind of slanted. Apple already knew who had lost the phone - they knew from the day after when they wiped it - Gizmodo just made that name public and did so in a fairly classy way. As a lot of comments on Gizmodo have pointed out, the public naming of the engineer isn't going to do anything more to hurt him, and could protect him a little from Steve Jobs firing him.
Apple obviously knows who has these prototypes, and they knew this one was lost because they remotely shut it down.
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I don't care if it's an iPhone, a new version of the Nexus One, a new USB enabled stapler or what have you, this is really really scummy of Gizmodo and I hope they burn in hell.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Their source is the one they paid $5K to, not the poor sap/purposeful leaker who left the iPhone in the bar.
The answers to all this and more, when you RTFA! :)
But the short answer: some guy at the bar apparently tried to figure out who owned it, failed (because the guy who lost it had already left), and started messing around with it trying to figure out the owner. Eventually he found the guy's Facebook page, and thought "Aha! I'll return this tomorrow". Unfortunately, when he woke up, the phone had been remotely bricked, so he couldn't get the contact info back again.
It's true that Apple often leaks things for PR, but it doesn't do it like this. It plants things in publications like the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times by calling up journalists, giving pointed hints, and leaving no paper trail. That way, both Apple and the publication have plausible deniability about everything: for Apple, it was just some rumor, and for the papers, it could have been a misunderstanding.
Apple sure as hell leaks things, as every tech company does in some way, shape, or form. This, however, is not how it operates. Specs and price points get leaked, not actual hardware. The iPhone is its big baby, and Steve prefers to have a big reveal on stage in San Francisco when announcing his precious new devices.
So, unlike you or me, he didn't think of just returning it to the bar knowing that if the person had lost the cell phone, that would likely be the first place he'd come looking?
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Because they abandoned it. At the time, they obviously didn't want it. They might have even left it there for you, and are simply changing their mind later. Either way, it isn't stealing because you never took it from them. In fact, you took it from nobody.
You found it. The decent thing to do would be to just give it back, but it's not uncommon to ask for a finder's fee before returning it (though it is uncommon if someone lost it for such a short period of time).
Seriously, what kind of dumbass is this guy? You still found it, you didn't steal it.
"Right" is subjective, but I'd agree that giving it back is the decent thing to do. It still isn't theft.
You are so completely wrong I don't know where to begin. Are you basing your opinion on the case of Finders v. Keepers?
First, it doesn't matter if it is unattended, it is not your property. You removed it from the place the owner placed it. That IS theft. There is leeway for the owners of an establishment to move the item to a lost and found area, but it certainly does not become their property it remains the property of the person who owned it and left it on the table/bar/etc. Depending on the jurisdiction, you can go through a process to dispose of the item (Sell it, trash it, keep it, turn it over to the state, etc) Most jurisdictions clearly define the process and what you are required to do.
Is your justification based on the size of the item in question? That doesn't matter and doesn't alter the ownership of the item.
If someone parked a porsche on the curb and left the keys on the front seat, do you think you wouldn't get charged with grand theft auto if you simple "moved it to get it out of the rain"?
I can see you are trying to justify the theft here, but in the end Gizmodo IS in posession of stolen property.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Sure, the engineer screwed up, but legal or not, it ain't right to keep the phone.
"Right" is subjective, but I'd agree that giving it back is the decent thing to do. It still isn't theft.
Actually, according to CA law, it is 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.
This
going to lose some job opportunities as a result of getting outed. Real dick move by Gizmodo.
"So the guy found a phone, tried to return it to the owner, the owner didn't respond so he sold it. I don't see a problem here."
/. loves car analogies: "Well, I was at this bar and found these car keys, so I drove the car around and tried to find the owner. After a few weeks I couldn't, so I sold the car."
Ok, here's a car analogy since
If you find something that's not yours you are suppose to try and contact the owner and if you can not, give it to the police. Anything else and it's theft. How else can it work? Are we suppose to trust thefts to be honest?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
This is what their source claims but personally I find this suspect. What if his "trying" involved calling tech support and saying "hurr hurr I have an 4g iphone"? because that's what it sounds like from the article:
I see, so he randomly dialed some numbers and then dialed tech support. Way to go all out, buddy. How about actually contacting the owner ?? After all, he had access to the owner's facebook account as well as his home/work phone number before the 4g was remotely disabled. It seems like an obviously half-hearted attempt because the finder did not want return the phone but wanted to appear like he did.
Yes, it is absolutely his fault, and he was probably going to suffer harsh consequences already. However, Gizmodo decided to heap public humiliation on top of this. He was already going to get fired, but now he is a laughingstock who will have a seriously hard time getting another job in the industry because of his newfound name recognition.
This guy was already screwed but Gizmodo decided to utterly destroy his career and reputation -- all for a few more clicks. Total dick move.
Apparently CA is almost nowhere as the law there requires you to turn over anything over $100 in value and wait 90 days.
Gosh didn't you watch the Brady Bunch as a Kid!!!
Oh and CA law also clearly defines what he did as theft.
And truly in almost NO circumstance does finding an object make it yours. In almost every state there are laws requiring you to wait a set period of time before you can claim lost or abandoned property. And in this case it was misplaced property which the finder can never make a legal claim on.
I like the Apple stories because they inform me of technology I can either live without or obtain elsewhere cheaper. It's the app for that.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert