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Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

networkworld.com

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Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#31

Post by Locke1689 »

rayval wrote: post #29
gizmo wrote: post #17

Hmm, I think Jon took a few too many creative liberties here for the sake of entertainment. 1. According to Gizmodo the door was broken in because the journalist wasn't at home. He was having dinner in a restaurant, arrived later when the search was already in progress. The authorities acted respectfully with his belongings, etc. There is a huge difference between ringing the bell a few times and breaking the door wh…

The matter was not something that needed to be attended to at 9:45 pm on a Friday night. They could have done it during business hours. Actually, they did not even need to visit the premises. They could have used a subpoena.

Take it up with the police, not Apple.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#32

Post by Locke1689 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #27
pkaler wrote: post #25

There are a couple errors in Jon Stewart's reporting. We don't know if the phone was lost or stolen. If it was stolen then Gizmodo has broken the law. If the phone was lost and Gizmodo did not attempt to return the phone then Gizmodo has broken the law. It appears that Apple reported the lost/stolen phone to the DA. We don't know when. It may have been before or after the story broke. Frankly, this whole story is ove…

Are there laws against attempting to return the lost after you've taken photographs of it? They did return it, they just took some pictures first.

There are laws against knowingly buying stolen property or property known to belong to someone else.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#33

Post by jrockway »

omaranto wrote: post #28
jrockway wrote: post #20

Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one. But you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes! What the fuck is going on?! It's all mixed up! At least Apple doesn't charge you $80 to change your desktop background on a netbook. But otherwise, I agree. Apple is hurting the field -- locking down hardware, mandating woefully outdated legacy programming languages, a…

What do you mean by the $80 to change the background bit? (I'm not disagreeing, I genuinely don't know what you're referring to.)

Windows 7 Starter does not have the ability to change the desktop background. You have to upgrade to "Windows 7 Home Super Awesome OMG" or whatever to get that.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#34

Post by jrockway »

JCThoughtscream wrote: post #30
GHFigs wrote: post #22

Why do so many people seem to fixate on the door?

Doors and locks are deeply ingrained symbols of privacy and access. The police busting down his door is, as Stewart notes, behavior we expect for /meth labs/, not bloggers.

Yeah, but he paid for a stolen phone!!! BURN HIM! HE TURNED ME INTO A NEWT!

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#35

Post by mbreese »

cookiecaper wrote: post #26
wtn wrote: post #6

AT&T, Google, and Facebook know 100X more about me than Apple.

How is this relevant to the video? He didn't claim that Apple had any personal information on its users. It sounds like you're bringing up an unrelated point to deflect attention from Apple's actions. That is not appropriate!

I think what they were trying to say is that Apple isn't necessarily acting like "big brother", and that there are other companies that are potentially more dangerous to you personally. Apple is acting more big brother-ish to their developers than their users...

That being said, I'm not sure that the police raiding Chen's home had anything to do with Apple... that's a big leap to make.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#36

Post by mbreese »

rayval wrote: post #29
gizmo wrote: post #17

Hmm, I think Jon took a few too many creative liberties here for the sake of entertainment. 1. According to Gizmodo the door was broken in because the journalist wasn't at home. He was having dinner in a restaurant, arrived later when the search was already in progress. The authorities acted respectfully with his belongings, etc. There is a huge difference between ringing the bell a few times and breaking the door wh…

The matter was not something that needed to be attended to at 9:45 pm on a Friday night. They could have done it during business hours. Actually, they did not even need to visit the premises. They could have used a subpoena.

They could have used a subpoena

If you're investigating a possible crime, you don't say "Hey, at your convenience could you get us your computers for us to look at?" You get a warrant and take the computers as soon as possible.

You can argue whether or not the warrant should have been issued, but once it was, the rest of the raid seemed pretty standard.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#37

Post by BRadmin »

cookiecaper wrote: post #26
wtn wrote: post #6

AT&T, Google, and Facebook know 100X more about me than Apple.

How is this relevant to the video? He didn't claim that Apple had any personal information on its users. It sounds like you're bringing up an unrelated point to deflect attention from Apple's actions. That is not appropriate!

I don't believe he's giving an opinion about Apple's actions, rather the accuracy of calling them "Big Brother" in light of the fact that other companies maintain a lot more information about their users than Apple does.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#38

Post by vl »

ahk wrote: post #3

What a turnaround! Just a few days ago everyone was highly sympathetic towards Apple losing one of their most valued secrets (not really all that much though) and boycotting Gizmodo and everything. Now with even Jon Stewart mocking them, calling them Big Brother and asking them to look in the mirror, this has turned into a major PR disaster for Apple. IMO, if they don't respond quickly and positively, this could turn…

>this has turned into a major PR disaster for Apple

I think it's a major PR victory for Apple. Jon Stewart just told everybody that he loves Apple products, likes new iPhone, wants one and that Apple broke some doors. Now everybody knows that they have to get new iPhone this summer. This controversy spiked public interest and this media coverage would not be achievable for them even if they pay godzillion dollars.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#39

Post by JCThoughtscream »

jrockway wrote: post #34
JCThoughtscream wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doors and locks are deeply ingrained symbols of privacy and access. The police busting down his door is, as Stewart notes, behavior we expect for /meth labs/, not bloggers.

Yeah, but he paid for a stolen phone!!! BURN HIM! HE TURNED ME INTO A NEWT!

And to play devil's advocate on /this/ side of the debate, paying for property of dubious ownership is considered a crime unto itself, and for pretty good reason.

Journalists aren't so heavily protected by shield laws that they can break crimes willy-nilly in pursuit of a story. Or any regular old story. It's one thing to break open Watergate - it's another entirely to buy a phone from a guy that they know doesn't have legal ownership of it, all for the sake of one-upping everybody else for the /review of a commercial product/.

It's arguably pretty bad precedent to just let it be. While Apple's, and the police's, actions have been comically overblown, /so was Gizmodo's/. If /nothing/ else, they really ought to be eating crow for engaging in sleazy checkbook journalism.

Re: Jon Stewart assails Apple for becoming "Big Brother"

#40

Post by andr »

Locke1689 wrote: post #31
rayval wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The matter was not something that needed to be attended to at 9:45 pm on a Friday night. They could have done it during business hours. Actually, they did not even need to visit the premises. They could have used a subpoena.

Take it up with the police, not Apple.

Apple sits on the steering committee of the police unit that entered Chen's house. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1795
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