iPhone 4 prototype journo off the hook The saga of the Gizmodophone – the iPhone 4 prototype found in a bar and exposed on the web – is nearing its end: prosecutors have decided that Gizmodo's Jason Chen won't be charged with wrongdoing in the long-running phone follies. "The difficulty we faced is that Mr. Chen and Gizmodo were primarily, in their view, engaged in …
Property stolen from Apple (the theft having occurred at the moment the defendant decided not to return the thing) was sold at a profit. That's a crime. Asking the police to investigate a crime isn't an ego trip. The attitude of the defendant also seems sufficient to push the crime from a legal wrong to a moral wrong.
Busting gung-ho through an editor's door once it's become obvious that you're part of a high profile story potentially sounds like a bit of an ego excursion but there's not a shred of evidence to suggest Apple directed the police investigation. Chen was mistreated in my opinion, but you're far too quick to point the finger of blame.
In fact the sceptic in me can't help but think it did exactly the opposite, feeding the ithing media feed frenzy... They couldn't have got more column inches in the run up to the launch if they'd tried.
Said sceptic is also wondering what stunt they'll do for the next one? Start watching those bar stools people!
Surely if Hogan is guilty of misappropriating / stealing (and benefited $5grand), surely Chen by the same reasoning is guilty of handling stolen property (fencing). Why did the police even try to use an information-dissemination related charge against Chen when they had him for a real crime?
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