“The warrant says the computer and other devices may have been used to commit a felony,” AP reports.
Full article here.
Gizmodo states, “Last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered editor Jason Chen’s home without him present, seizing four computers and two servers. They did so using a warrant by Judge of Superior Court of San Mateo. According to Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gawker Media LLC, the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.”
Full article, with the search warrant, inventory of the seized material, Jason Chen’s account of the events, and more here.
Wow, that was swift.. more so than imminent… what was that other word again..
Is $5000 good enough for an attorney.
snappy
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they’ll return everything after they’ve made copies of his porn and display it on their website. then they’ll put up his age and his last adult friendfinder posting.
and the shi@t hits the fan……
Well, I guess we’ll soon see whether the incident was due to a conspiracy, or mixture of stupidity and dishonesty.
Well, don’t piss off the big dog….he bites hard.
I refuse to read the account on Gizmodo.
Don’t click on the link – it only rewards them with paid ad views in return for their criminal behavior.
Nail him to the wall. That was just uncool to post the pics.
Gizmodo + Steve = absolutely the winningest PR team in the market today!
Jobs’ genius keeps on giving. This is not only not over, the best is yet to come and will play out for months.
Result as planned: everybody will want the new phone.
The underlying incident was just slathered with wrongness. The person who found the device then decided to profit from it acted irresponsibly, unethically, immorally and stupidly. S/he needs to be prosecuted. And the “journalist’s” actions were similarly wrongheaded and also deserve prosecution. Assuming management and legal representation at Gizmodo, they should have known better too. There’s plenty of bigger fish to fry out there, but these total morons deserve to be punished too. This law abiding Apple lover is glad the police are looking into it.
HAHAHA, LMAO!
J A S O N C H E N S U C K S!!!
J A S O N C H E N S U C K S!!!
J A S O N C H E N S U C K S!!!
J A S O N C H E N S U C K S!!!
How’s it feel Jason? Fun? Douche.
Outstanding!
This hole thing is a piece of $h!t. Gizmodo did nothing wrong. It’s illegal to purchase an item you know was obtained illegally. However, the iPhone was left out in public and the guy tried to contact apple to get it back. Basically, the guy stumbled into the iPhone, he didn’t obtain it legally. Under CA law there may be a case against the guy that sold it for $5K, but Gizmodo shouldn’t be liable for crap.
I think maybe a few of us are looking at it from the wrong angle. What Jason did, to be honest, is partly his job. You get the shiniest tech-grail months in ahead of its due time, it’s like every tech reporter’s wet dream. Maybe it’s illegal how he had obtained it, but that’s for the judicial system to decide.
However, we shouldn’t be contemptuous or angry with Gizmodo on the same vain as we are with, say, Google with its backstabbing evil ways.
Meanwhile, I for one, find the entire situation (from German beer/Lufthansa followup, to Apple scratching their head and Woz’s T-shirt, to this police harassment) to be immensely funny so far, to be honest. No real harm done, Apple got a teaser of what the future consumers may feel about the hardware, Android ‘Incredible’ got some of its wind knocked out, and finally, it’d be fantastic if Apple somehow still manages to catch us completely off guard come summer…
So, yeah, don’t be a hater, Apple is firing on all cylinders (as the cliché goes), and we can afford to loosen up a bit as fans, so very unlike the paid shills of Google et al.
Good times…
What happens when the fuzz find Jason’s stash of kiddie porn?
His cell mates will LOVE the news… and HIM!
Sorry for double posting, MDN server was slow. I should be more patient.
When you make a standing offer to pay for stuff you know you’re not supposed to have, you should expect this to happen.
Several felonies. Buh-bye Gizmodo.
No harm done?! Are you freaking kidding me. They paid $5,000 for stolen property, which makes this a felony. They have probably violated the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
krquet, you sir are wrong, they BOTH violated the criminal statutes and are subject to prosecution under California criminal code.
Furthermore, IF this took place over state lines, it is now a federal crime..
They are getting what they deserve, this man knowingly purchased stolen property and had the gall to blog about it. GUILTY..
Note how Gizmodo elected to blur out Jason Chen’s personal details from the documentation posted on their website.
If they’d extended a similar courtesy to Gray Powell – in other words, if they hadn’t acted like complete jerks by needlessly outing him in conjunction with this story – then maybe there wouldn’t be so many people cackling gleefully over Mr. Chen’s fate.
@REALTORben,
Stick to trying to sell abandoned houses. You know NOTHING about the laws involved here and the implications.
I don’t get the gizmodo lawyer response — this is not about revealing a source but investigating a crime that Chen might have committed. In that situation, the police can seize his equipment.
That said, I still feel bad for Chen. He was just doing what he was told by higher-ups. I know I would be bankrupt if the police took all my hard drives and equipment: how would I do any work? Scary.
Apple doesn’t screw around is the message of the day… just don’t do it, even if ya want too!