Silicon Valley cops raid Gizmodo editor's home, take four computers

Seems pretty grey area to me to seize his stuff and not charge him with a crime.

Btw, I love apple (better say in case Steve Jobs is reading my posts and he'll have the REACT team on my ass)
 
Seems pretty grey area to me to seize his stuff and not charge him with a crime.
First, I think it's Bullsh!t that they did this, but they need evidence before they can charge him with a crime. Seizing his property to find said evidence is logical.
 
it's logical, but I think it's a violation of his rights honestly since he gave the thing back without hassle, heck didn't they call apple to tell them they had it? I know they had a warrant, but it just seems like the warrant was issued on pretty shakey reasons. Heck with today's technology, what's the point of actually seizing the property. Just grab images of the drives in the systems, the REACT guys can just be packing portable harddrives.

I'm sure when more facts come out, we're going to find out how underhanded all the parties involved are. I still think gawker/gizmodo was just plain silly to pay what they did for the phone.

Honestly, stepping back, looking at how stupid this is... It's a damn phone, one that everyone knew was coming, knew many of the features already, no big surprises with the leaked info. But again, it's still just a gadget that has now wasted taxpayer money and will probably end up wasting court time. The only ones again making money will be the lawyers.
 
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Again, I think Apple is using their influence here, but buying the phone, when they knew very well it didn't belong to the person who had it, was (legally) "wrong". It is "receiving stolen property". Giving it back doesn't undo the crime unless Apple says they don't want to press charges.

As for this REACT team, I surely hope it didn't look like we've all seen on the news when some computer crime took place and the police seize the criminal's computers .... and monitors, mouse, keyboard, printers, and so on !! The computer itself, fine. The monitors and other stuff. Come on, who's doing the computer-based investigation that thinks they need the other parts ? :(
 
Oh yes, gizmodo/gawker was in the wrong for even accepting it, let alone paying for it, but since that is a known fact, why not charge them with taking possession of known stolen property. Even it was really "found" they should have just said no thanks or called apple first. Lots of ethics gone wrong here.

Only thing I am missing is did Apple say "tell us who you got it from" and they denied the request, so then in effort to find the person who sold it to them, they took the data from the PC's to obtain that info to press charges. I don't know.

Either way, it's still a waste of time and money IMO, especially over a phone that really doesn't possess anything ground breaking. Hell it's free press for Apple.
 
They did call Apple first and try to return it, they were told that it was probably a chineese knockoff and that it wasn't Apples. In fact they called a few times and were told the same thing.

Once the report was posted online The phone was requested back by Apple and Gizmodo promptly returned the phone to Apple.

Then a few days AFTER the phone was returned the cops raided Jason Chens house by kicking down his door. The kid wasnt running a meth lab in his house he is a tech nerd excited to break the news on what sounds like a very exciting phone.

Did they need to break down his door? What was the emergency? If there was evidence it was already a week old and chances are he got rid of any offending evidence before then.

The raid itself was in violation of the search order as it was done at nighttime (and the nighttime search box on the warrent wasnt check) and also was in violation of numerous California state and Federal laws. In California bloggers are protected by the same laws that protect journalists. If they wanted to search his computers they should have suponeaed them, not use a battering ram to break into his house.

Now California laws not withstanding I have heard some people say that Apple does not consider Chen a member of the press. If this is the case then why has Apple invited Chen to attend its PRESS CONFRENCES all these years? By inviting him to these PRESS CONFRENCES Apple themselves admit that he is a member of the PRESS.

The entire event up until the cops breaking down Jason Chens door was POSITIVE free press for Apple. The Gizmodo report was talked about all over the news, every network covered the story and it got people excited about the new Apple product.

But what is happening now is just plain WRONG. Jason can't even work because he dosen't have his computers. The search for evidence on his machine has been halted while the DA tries to figure out is Chen is a member of the press or not and is protected by the state and federal shield laws. The police department was asked when Chen would get his equipment back and the response was "When we feel like it" and that getting him his equipment back was not a high priority for them. (Yet it was a high enough priority for them to ambush his house and kick in the door.)

I urge everyone today to go to Gizmodo.COM and check out this video from Jon Stewart last night. Jon says it all and puts it in a way that only Jon Stewart can. Jon Stewart Slams Apple Over Its Handling of Gizmodo Case - Jon Stewart - Gawker.TV

This entire event has soured a lot of people on Apple and rightfully so. Its now up to Steve Jobs to pull his head out of his ass and take a look at whats going on here and make a wrong a right. Until then to many Apple will look like the big bully on the block all because one of their employees lost their iPhone.
 
Sounds like DirecTV back in the day with suing everyone including people who never had a DirecTV system or equipment, and not even a view of the south. Just big and bad because they can!
 

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