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The 4G iPhone's Finder Reportedly Located
CNET is reporting that investigators have interviewed the person who found the unreleased Apple iPhone and began all the trouble. Wired reports that last week people "identifying themselves as representing Apple last week visited and sought permission to search the Silicon Valley address of the college-age man who came into possession of a next-generation iPhone prototype." "'Someone came to [the finder's] house and knocked on his door,' the source told Wired.com, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation by the police. A roommate answered, but wouldn't let them in. ... News of Apple's lost iPhone prototype hit the Web like a bombshell, but it was apparently an open secret for weeks amongst the finder's roommates and neighbors, where the device was shown around mostly as a curiosity. ... 'There was no effort to keep it secret,' the source said. 'There were a bunch of people who knew.' ... Wired.com received an e-mail March 28 offering access to the device, but did not follow up on the exchange after the tipster made a thinly veiled request for money."
This guy shopped around stolen property to find the highest bidder after making a feeble attempt to "return" it. I don't have much sympathy for whatever happens to the guy.
Don't Talk to the Police
-William Brendel
Sounds like Apple is loving this hype and attention for the iPhone
...under an apparently illegal warrant...
Well sure, if you believe gizmodo's claims and their somewhat stretched interpretation of the journalist protection laws.
Ah, you mean the OS that Steve Jobs' company made, not the one made by Steve Jobs' company!
The take away from that is that you can't trust the opinion of the EFF. They're so wrong, it shows them to be incompetent. Journalists have no protection from the law if they are under investigation for a felony. The felony being purchasing stolen goods.
Apple isn't going after gizmodo.
The People of California are investigating a company who paid for stolen goods, disassembled said goods, and talked with everyone but the apple employee who lost the phone.
if this case goes to trial it won't be a civilian case, but a criminal one. Apple can't touch gizmodo for this. California however can try him for dealing with stolen goods.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
last story, there were people who were defending apple and maintained that no linkage of evil could be established about the prosecution regarding the iphone dismantlers. it turns out that 'representatives' of apple went out to a private citizen's quarters, and intending to search the premises.
Yeah and if I lost a valuable phone and the anti-theft feature told my boss where it was, he might send people to ask the owner of the house if they could come in and find it too. How is that evil? Mind you the home owner has every right to refuse and make them call the cops who will get a warrant to come in and look for it.
so, a private corporation sends 'representatives' to search people's homes ... will there be anyone that would come up and defend this, i wonder ...
If they have reason to believe their stolen property is in someone's home, they have every right to go ask if they can come in and look for it. If you lost your phone and location tracked it to a house would it be evil for you to ask the residents if you can come in and look for it?
Stealing the phone someone lost at the bar is unethical. Selling it to the highest bidder is unethical. Looking for your lost property... not unethical.
What did Apple do here? The prosecutor's office (or investigating detective) decided to look into this. A judge decided that the search was reasonable. The police executed it.
I don't see Apple anywhere in there. The only thing Apple has to do with any of this is that they were hurt (through revealing of the device, and loss of their property) and have probably filed a report to the police to that effect.
If this happened to Garmin, don't you think they'd talk to the police and say "hey that's ours"? Dell would do it. So would TIVo, Microsoft, iRobot, and any other company. If they don't file a police report, they don't get it back.
The fact that the circumstances the device was acquired under are fishy enough that the police/prosecutor are looking into it aren't Apple's fault. If everything looked above board, the prosecutor wouldn't have started looking into this, the judge wouldn't have signed a warrant.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"Apple would still scream blue murder and harass him with search warrants, but he would not be a criminal."
Apple can't obtain or act on search warrants. Apple can't charge or prosecute anyone for a crime.
The lack of even the most basic knowledge of how our system of justice works is just appalling. Do they put you kids through a civics course in school anymore?
The EFF believes that if Jason Chen is not charged with a crime, then the search is illegal. If he is charged with a crime, then his protection as a journalist goes out the window. They can't act on a warrant, impound materials that implicate his source, then let him go. He has to be the target of the investigation for this to be legal. Journalists don't get a free pass to commit crimes just because they write about the crimes they've committed.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
It's a free country. You are allowed to go to someone's door and ask them a question, and ask to come in. They can say no. If you keep it up, they can call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing/harassment. But asking "can I come in to talk to you" is perfectly legal.
According to Apple Insider:
The emphasis is mine, though that was a link in the original. A branch of the police executed a warrant. That's legal too. That's the way it's supposed to work.
If Apple did their own search, that would be bad. But they used the process. They did it by the book. This article says that the police aren't analyzing what they found until the question of the shield law is settled. Does that sound like someone following Apple's agenda, damn the consequences?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
You have not read any of the articles. It was bricked in under 24 hours.