> because Gizmodo purchased stolen property
Serious question. Do we know the iPhone was stolen from the Apple engineer? The last I heard, it was left at a bar and someone found it.
Serious question. Do we know the iPhone was stolen from the Apple engineer? The last I heard, it was left at a bar and someone found it.
The claim by Gizmodo (and presumably the finder) is that the finder called the Apple customer service line and didn't get anything useful, thereby fulfilling the requirement.
The claim by those who say this was theft under CA law is that this did not fulfill the requirement, since it was found in a bar, and it is extremely reasonable to contact the bartender about a lost item that was found in the bar.
If you concede—for argument's sake—the group claiming theft is correct under CA law, and Gizmodo knew the backstory—which they presumably did—then they purchased stolen goods.
One of the people at Gizmodo (Nick Denton? memory fails right now) even admitted it was stolen when offering to return it to Apple, although the page containing the admission has since been edited.
> The claim by those who say this was theft under CA law is that this did not fulfill the requirement, since it was found in a bar, and it is extremely reasonable to contact the bartender about a lost item that was found in the bar.
Ahh, thanks for the clarification! That makes sense.
Brian Lam, Editorial Director for Gizmodo, in reply to Bruce Sewell, Apple General Counsel:
Bruce, thanks. Here's Jason Chen, who has the iPhone. And here's his address. You two should coordinate a time. [Blah Blah Blah Address] Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn't know this was stolen [as they might have claimed. meaning, real and truly from Apple. It was found, and to be of unproven origin] when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it's not some knockoff, and it really is Apple's, I'm happy to see it returned to its rightful owner. P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don't think he loves anything more than Apple.
-- http://gizmodo.com/5520479/a-letter-apple-wants-its-secret-i...
The after-the-fact editing was the insertion of the portion in brackets, inclusive.