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Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

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201–210 of 306 posts

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#201

Seems a bit overkill? JUST for a moment, forget about the your bias on Gizmodo or Apple... When's the last time you or someone you know reported something stolen, knew who took it and possibly had just as much evidence of who has possession, and there was no search warrant and raid done on your behalf? I experienced several examples where there was video evidence of the theft, the value of the goods were anywhere bet…

[deleted]

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the ad views are due to being served with a search warrant, which is public information (or at least something they are allowed to disclose).

And thus, making money out of a legal problem they created for their own employee. So we can add fraud to the potential charges, which requires a material misrepresentation of fact (his potential personal criminal liability), made with scienter (a reckless disregard for the truth), justifiably relied upon (by an employee listening to the company's self-identified legal representative, Gaby Derbyshire, who is not qual…

If I ever end up in court I want you there too. On the other side.

Hah, deal. If you run for District Attorney, I will vote for you.

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#204
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the only way we know that to have happened is via Gizmodo's account of what the guy who sold it to them said. I'm not saying he didn't, but we've hardly gotten irrefutable proof that it actually happened. It is, after all, in the guy's interest to make himself look like he was trying to return it.

Agreed. If he's lying about trying to return it, I hope that's revealed and he's punished. In the meantime, I won't condemn him without evidence. I hope anyone else wouldn't either.

I won't condemn him, but I won't vindicate him either. At this point there is no proof either way, but the circumstances as presented so far do seem fishy to me.

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#205
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trigger any thoughts about trade secrets What? I don't think not returning the device immediately when Apple asked for it was right, but Gizmodo aren't obligated to protect Apple's trade secrets. Nobody is but Apple. Do you want every rumor site to be shut down?

How do trade secrets even enter into this? They're planning on selling these phones all over the world. How could just possession of one be regarded as violating trade secrets?

Because in hardware IP travels with the machine. Opening one, potentially reverse-engineering it, or even just looking at it revealed quite a bit of information (for exemple the famous forward-facing camera, that we were waiting for on the 3GS last year), which were trade secrets of Apple until they were publicly revealed by Gizmodo. That's clearly against the law.

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#206
post #94
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't he do something reasonable, like turn it into the bartender or the police?

Calling the owner (in the company sense) is better than handing a device in to some dodgy bartender. If I lost an item belonging to my current employer, we would both certainly prefer that. I don't know much about east coast US police but the NY ones certainly don't give a shit about stuff left in public places by drunk people.

I honestly don't buy that. You find an iPhone lying on a street-corner? Then maybe you go through your own methods. You find an iPhone at a bar? The first place that person is going to look is at that bar. The sensible thing is to turn it into the bartender, not take it home, attempt to track down the person, then explain why exactly it is you have their iPhone/wallet/etc.

(EDIT: Put another way: according to the original story, the finder claimed to think there was nothing special about the iPhone at that time. If you're at a decent bar in the middle of Silicon Valley, do you really think it's that sketchy to turn an iPhone 3G into the bartender or management?)

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#207
IF you tweet, can you use the same legal argument as being protected under "Free Speach and Journalisim?"

Therfore giving you legal immunity regardless of the content that you are tweeting?

Illegal drug use, felony activities etc? Or blind ignorance of common ethics and civil code?

Would be an interesting outcome and an explosion of online journalisim if this proves to be the case... Don't you think?

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#208
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, that Gizmodo acted wrong and should be punished. They bought stolen goods, period. The problem is that them hiding behind a shield law isn't totally nuts. What if someone leaked them something that was actually in the public interest--something important for people to know, but that could still be considered a trade secret. We certainly don't want the courts deciding what's "important" news and what isn't, d…

They bought stolen goods, period. Sorry, at which point did the theft occur?

When the guy who found the phone didn't turn the lost phone in at the bar or a police station.

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a subtle distinction to be made here between providing the key and providing access. Courts have ruled that the Constitution permits the government to compel you to provide access to the relevant information (e.g. to open the safe). But you don't have to give the government the combination. Just open the safe for them, and you can keep the combination to yourself. Anyway, that doesn't really change the basic…

Citation? (And I'm not asking to be snarky. I need more information before I decide to run for public office and change the law :)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/court-self-i...

That page has a link to the District Court ruling in Boucher.

Re: Police raid Gizmodo editor's house

#210
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, that Gizmodo acted wrong and should be punished. They bought stolen goods, period. The problem is that them hiding behind a shield law isn't totally nuts. What if someone leaked them something that was actually in the public interest--something important for people to know, but that could still be considered a trade secret. We certainly don't want the courts deciding what's "important" news and what isn't, d…

They bought stolen goods, period. Sorry, at which point did the theft occur?

California law says that if you find lost goods and appropriate them for your own use (e.g. selling it to a news site for five grand), it's theft. The proper response would have been to make an honest effort to get ahold of Apple and/or Gray Powell directly (e.g. call the company switchboard), and, failing that, turn it in to the police.

Instead, he sold it for a profit to a company (Gizmodo) who believed that it was real. Misappropriation = theft.

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