Apple and Santa Clara D.A. may file charges for found/purchased iPhone prototype

By on Apr 23, 2010 at 4:25 PM
mobile April 23, 2010

Games - Go to Jail

It’s bad when a trusted employee has to tell you that they’ve lost a future prototype of the product that single-handedly catapulted your company to the forefront of mobile devices. However, it is worse when the person who ends up with the lost treasure knows exactly what he/she has, and what it could be worth…and this soap opera ain’t sitting well with the folks in Cupertino. CNET is reporting that Apple and the computer crime task force of the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office are investigating whether the sale of the now infamous fourth generation iPhone violated the law in any way. CNET explains where Apple could have a case:

Under a California law dating back to 1872, any person who finds lost property and knows who the owner is likely to be but “appropriates such property to his own use” is guilty of theft. If the value of the property exceeds $400, more serious charges of grand theft can be filed. In addition, a second state law says that any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year.

Any prosecution would be complicated because of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that confidential information leaked to a news organization could be legally broadcast, although that case did not deal with physical property and the radio station did not pay its source.

The suit may, or may not, be aimed at tech blog Gizmodo — the purchaser of the found iPhone — as Apple, the Santa Clara D.A., and Gizmodo all declined to comment when contacted by CNET. What do you think? Will this be a landmark case for Constitutional scholars, or is Apple just letting off some legal steam?

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  • Seabass

    Apple is lame if the will do that!!! They messed up not someone who found it. Let this be a lesson next time Keep the prototype toys inside apple or you will chance it of it coming out!

  • estrouse

    This is why I sold my brandnew Mac Book Pro… are they really going to sue the guy that found this? If so, they are ridiculous. If the guy called Apple to try to return it, he did what he should, at least in my opinion. Who cares if it is a bunch of guys in India (not to mention, I called Apple and got some surfer sounding douchebag that gave me a attitude…). Anyway, I hope other people refuse to support such a ridiculous company. They are benefitting from this leak. I hate Apple anymore, and even said “damn… if it wasn’t an Apple product, I’d consider it”. However, I am a man of principle, and for the reasons above, will not.

    • yowsers

      Not believing you, estrouse.

      If I read you right, you got a brand new MacBook Pro, took it home, fired it up, surfed the web, found the story of some 3rd rate opportunist/thief who hocked someone else’s property to the highest bidder (all the while knowing who the real owner was)…

      …annnnnnd you throw a tantrum like a 13 yr old and go out and sell said brand new MacBook Pro as a political statement?

      Right! (And here I’m wondering where the Tea Partiers find their shock troops…)

      Calling BS on that. Not even a “nice try, dude” for you. Simply lame. Either lying (my theory), or a tantrum throwing emotional spaz that can’t think clearly (logically, non-emotionally) on his own.

  • Richard

    While everyone else is going to bigger screens, in
    order to make it possible to avoid zooming altogether,
    Apple seems to be locked into the idea that pinch
    to zoom is so cool everyone will play their little game.
    The truth is that avoiding zoom altogether with a screen
    that is the maximum practical size gives one a totally
    awesome speed boost, both from the user’s standpoint
    and by unloading the processor for more important things
    like graphics and rendering. The recent 4″+ beasties
    that are coming onstream blow anything Apple away.
    If this is truly a near-production final prototype and
    actually has a SMALLER screen when everyone
    else in the industry is moving in the other direction,
    it would appear they have been planning on substituting
    marketing for innovation. Everyone has to stumble
    sometime.

  • Monkey

    We all know how lame apple is. Out of all companies that just profited a cool 3billion this past quarter… and still has room to cry about a lost iphone? Seriously… Get off your dildo apple and don’t let prototypes leave the campus. what a bunch of douches. He attempted to return the phone and was shooed away. Case closed.

    • joebear

      Get off your own dildo and think about what it means to test cellular technology switching. Dumbass.

  • Dustin

    this is just more on the event of their VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN for this issue… the more they keep it going and such the less they have to pay for advertisment… it’s a lot cheaper to get a law firm and pay them to get more PRESS on blogs or other sites than it is to purchase SPACE after SPACE on those sites… FREE PRESS IS GOOD & Apple is one of the best at it…

    I normally don’t buy into allt his stuff, but honestly I’m intrigued as to the outcome until it’s released come June or July…

  • Azeron

    This is some funny shit. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? An Apple employee loses a device and Apple wants to blame someone who found it and reportedly tried to return it? Huh? Grand theft? What jury would convict?

  • Jason Twung

    Gizmodo, Chen and the thief who failed to return the “lost” iphone to the bar are sh!$%ing in their pants right now. Shield law does not prevent the DA from prosecuting felonies relating to selling/receiving stolen goods. “No officer, I can buy this missing Picasso because I hyperventilate about art online!” Anyone using that logic is seriously mentally challenged. It may take months until the case is more clear, but as an attorney this much is clear to me, Gizmodo cannot afford the legal defense that it is going to need. They are going to be thrown under the bus, and no matter what the ACLU and other groups claim as “Freedom of the press” it does not cover receiving stolen property! The IP and trade secrets that were released by Gizmodo, may cost Apple millions in R&D, and may have given competitors months to TRY to come up with something that can compete. This would be argued in a civil case if Apple so wanted to do so. Currently what we have is a criminal case! Of and relating to the sale of stolen property! End of story. If Apple decides after the criminal case to file a civil case against Giz, Giz and its owners will be quickly forced into bankruptcy court, if not for the damages awarded to Apple then just due to the legal bills. The amount of resources and sheer manpower it will take to defend itself against AAPL who has every right to protect its IP will make anyone working on Gizmodos legal team tremble. Their best bet now is to try and sit down with Apple behind closed doors with an intermediary and see if they can resolve this. My thoughts are however that Apple will pursue Gizmodo and its owners as far as their lteam of lawyers and $43 billion in cash can take them. My guess is it will be further than Gizmodos owners will want to go. Gizmodo owners should be packing their suitcases, applying their fake mustaches and googling Tahiti right now.

  • JckMehoff

    Apple has no case… the guy attempted to return it…regardless of how lame the attempt was. And It will hold up in court – especially when the judge asks Apple “what did you do to attempt to recover the device?” and Apple responds with “Nothing”. If they wanted to find it – they could have. It has GPS built in, they could have gotten data from the cell tower, etc, etc… Also, Apple has no civil case either. In order for a trade secret to be considered a trade SECRET is if you make EVERY attempt to KEEP IT A SECRET. If you don’t make every possible precaution to keep it a trade secret – then it is not considered a trade secret anymore… And by their drunk developer just leaving it on a bar stool in public, he didn’t hold up Apple’s of keeping it a secret. Read up on the laws… And Gizmodo can’t be held responsible either because for them to be charged with receiving stolen property they have to accept it KNOWING it was stolen. They established that they didn’t know it was stolen by denying publicly on their site that they didn’t even accept it as being legitimate. Then when it was proven to be legit, they returned it. Even if the DA’s search and seizure finds that Gizmodo knew it was stolen – it will be dismissed in court because it was an invalid search warrant – for multiple reasons. Just read the the warrant itself and read the law on seizure of a journalist’s possessions in CA law.

  • Counsel

    I want to sympathize, but I can’t…

    You see, my 1st gen iPhone was recently stolen, and I hear Apple can’t be bothered to let me know when the thief tries to set up a new iTunes account to get service on iTunes or AT&T…

    Well, why should I be surprised when Apple is all concerned when someone steals their iPhone and wants services?

    Seems to me I shouldn’t be surprised that Apple cares more about Apple property than it does about my apple-property…

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