By FITSNews || Cops in Silicon Valley broke into a blogger’s home and seized computers and other equipment as part of an investigation into a misplaced Apple iPhone prototype.
On Friday, the San Mateo Police Department raided the home of Jason Chen – an editor of Gizmodo.com – and took four computers, two servers, an iPad and other devices. Lawyers for Gizmodo’s parent company – Gawker Media – claim the search was illegal under California law, which protects journalists against such actions.
Last week, Gizmodo.com paid $5,000 for a device that was purported to be the next generation iPhone – scheduled for release this summer. The phone had reportedly been left at a Silicon Valley bar by an Apple employee.
The company returned the phone to Apple after disassembling it and reporting on its features.
Having recently dealt with a situation similar to this one, we’re a little surprised by the extreme action the police in San Mateo took. In fact, this whole case strikes us as nothing more than a powerful company using a government police force to shakedown a reporter who wouldn’t give up his source – which would obviously set a terrible precedent.
After all, the “stolen” property was returned, wasn’t it? And it’s not like Apple can put the genie back in the bottle, can it? Of course not. And even if Apple has evidence that there was something amiss here, raiding a journalist’s home should not only be a last resort, but something that requires a very, very high threshold (i.e. national security).
Duh. That’s why there are laws that protect them.
In contrast to the behavior of the San Mateo cops, our experience with South Carolina law enforcement on such matters has been positive.
In fact, we recently aided a local law enforcement agency in retrieving some information in exchange for strict confidentiality as it related to our source. Seriously, as long as the cops weren’t asking us to rat out anybody, we were happy to assist them.
Obviously we don’t know all the particulars of this case, but based on the information available it strikes us as a classic government overreach … one that should cause bloggers and reporters everywhere to wonder whether or not their offices will be raided in the event they decline to compromise their sources.
By CNChapin April 27, 2010 at 9:27 am
Welcome to the police state. The people at Gizmodo took receipt of a LOST (not stolen) item through payment for it. When Apple claimed it as theirs, they returned it to Apple without trying to extort money out of them. As far as I can tell, there is no wrong-doing here and to RAID this guy’s house is just another example of an out-of-control tyrannical and oppressive government using its law enforcement division to force compliance with their will. Apple pulled some strings and greased some wheels and the law man stepped up to protect them. That’s not justice, it’s crony-ism and is disgusting.
I’ve been a die-hard Apple fan for MANY years, but not anymore. Screw those people. Their drunk ass software guy lost his phone and now Apple has the cops raiding someone’s house? They’re just Nazis.
By dirtbogger April 27, 2010 at 10:25 am
This crap did not just start! Here is an example of many!
http://www.rubyridge.net/
By Genomic Repairman April 27, 2010 at 10:43 am
Gizmodo purchased stolen goods, dismantled the property and publicized the internal components to the world and in the process violated the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Apple didn’t force the cops to go after them, that decision was made by the police and district attorney. Apple spends millions to develop IP, do you not expect them to defend it. Go back and look up about when a Coke employee tried to sell the secret recipe to Pepsi back in 2006. Did Pepsi buy it? Fuck no! They told Coke and called the cops. Maybe if the douches at Gizmodo weren’t assholes they could have acted with a little more class. Gizmodo is at a very minimum guilty of receiving stolen property.
By Rebel April 27, 2010 at 11:01 am
Apple is indeed a ridiculous company, which would explain their less than 10% market share, and the simple fact that they will never compete with the workhorse pc in the real-life workplace. If you’ve ever worked in a pc environment office, but with a mac holdout as a co-worker, you know what I’m talking about. Their products are part of a lifestyle that I detest. If you are an Apple fan, chances are you also drive a Prius, believe in global warming, sustainability and LEED certification (huge scam), shop at Whole Foods, believe ‘diversity for diversity’s sake’ is a good idea, listen to NPR religiously, love the Obama administration, and you can fill the rest of the elitist nonsense of this pose. They would never buy a Dell, I guess it reeks of walMart, Sarah Palin, and Nascar. Sorry, I don’t need or want a 2 thousand dollar laptop. I hope they go broke.
That being said, anything that takes down Gawker is fine by me as well, and be careful with believing a word they say in regard to this story. I despise Nick Denton and the noxious Alex Pareene. I hope they take a serious hit to the pocketbook defending themselves over this.
By really???? April 27, 2010 at 11:40 am
Fits, clearly you do not get as many hits as macrumors. Their thread on this topic is up to more than 1600 comments on this topic.
By sid April 27, 2010 at 11:51 am
That link doesn’t offer much detail, dirtbogger. It doesn’t mention anything about Weaver’s son and wife being killed, for example. Read Every Knee Shall Bow.
That said, comparing the Chen/Gizmodo incident to Ruby Ridge is comparing apples to whatever is not even remotely similar to apples. Oranges would be way too similar to get a proper perspective.
By fitsnews April 27, 2010 at 12:17 pm
“Really,”
No we don’t get as many hits as MacRumors (2.2 million unique visits for the month of March).
Those guys are killing it … and props to them for getting all that traffic.
-FITS
By WorkingTommyC April 27, 2010 at 12:26 pm
The use of the police force by a private company doesn’t compare to the military being used as such–an excuse to reap hundreds of billions in taxpayer money by private corporations. It’s all just a recipe for a slow boiling war(? or occupation?) left over from the Korean and Vietnam era. These are cauldrons of fascist stew tended over by such witches as Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and at first George Bush and now Barack Obama.
The military finished the military objectives years ago with a superb precision and efficiency never before seen on earth. Now the fascists war-lingerers are just wasting our soldiers’ lives and increasing our debt by over a trillion dollars.
The “favor factory” atmosphere of the modern semi-fascist state is what we’re dealing with regularly at most levels of government. Laws are screwed up but, instead of fixing the laws so that equality under the law for each individual is respected, they grant exemptions to the law or write the laws to begin with so that they favor certain industries or individual corporate entities, etc.
People describe the third world as a place where police extort money/accept bribes on a regular basis. Are we not there already except that it’s still mostly at the HIGHER levels of government?
As soon as the corruption at the higher levels becomes more in the open and acceptable, it will trickle down to the lower levels of bureaucracies and police enforcement so that we’re IDENTICAL to those third world countries we brag about being superior to.
By dirtbogger April 27, 2010 at 12:50 pm
excessive police state force in both cases, sid, but yes what happened to the Weavers is far, far worse than what happened to the techno geek. People should not just except police state tactics. We should not allow this to become comman place.
By confused April 27, 2010 at 3:58 pm
genomic, just wanted to acknowledge your accurate and reasoned assessment of the situation amid all the hysteria. you hit the nail on the head.
apple doesn’t control the police. the police do, however, go after people who break (and then brag about and profit from breaking) the law. the black helicopters are not real.
By SubZeroIQ April 27, 2010 at 5:06 pm
FITS: What did you just say? You “recently dealt with a situation similar to this one” and “we recently aided a local law enforcement agency in retrieving some information in return for strict confidentiality as it relates to our source.” Did you really write that and did it happen? Are you really that sell out and that stupid? No one who makes you snitch keeps your identity confidential. When will you ever learn that someone who lies for you today will lie to you tomorrow? When will you ever learn that someone who makes you snitch on someone else today will snitch on you tomorrow? Must we assume that all our “noms de plume” are for naught because you gave all our e-mail addresses to the “local … agency”? Seriously FITS, I thought, if nothing else, you had some journalistic integrity. Say it ain’t so or make amends.
By fitsnews April 27, 2010 at 5:29 pm
SubZeroIQ,
We did deal with a situation like this and we found the cops we dealt with to be honest and above boards.
Obviously, not all cops are like that, but these were.
Sell out? Us?
Awwww, you shouldn’t have …
-FITS
By Max The Dog April 27, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Seriously, as long as the cops weren’t asking us to rat out anybody, we were happy to assist them.* Fits
What makes you think you are a serious journalist on the internet when you roll over for the new and amazing police state cops in your state?
By fitsnews April 27, 2010 at 7:45 pm
MTD,
Okay sure, whatever. We rolled over. We’re a bunch of cop-schlobbers over here, what can we say.
We go deep on cops … even deeper than we go on our favorite politicians.
-FITS
P.S. – If assisting the cops on an issue that really wasn’t that big of a deal in the first place is “rolling over,” then GUILTY AS CHARGED. We protected our source, that’s what matters to us.
By SubZeroIQ April 27, 2010 at 8:47 pm
FITS: It’s too late now. You’ve let the cat’s tail or its paws or whatever part of it titillates you out of the bag already. So, you owe us the rest. Don’t give your source but give the when, what, where and how.
Speaking of that, I did not see a word from you on the Columbia Police Department’s cheating scandal of a couple of years ago, or on the brutal and false arrests of two young lawyers in Five Points on 17 October 2009, or on the no-set-date investigation of Steve Benjamin’s broadsiding a working woman’s car on 21 April 2010, or for that matter, on my case.
Is the Columbia Police Department “the local law enforcement agency” you found “honest” or are you just their publicity agent?
I guess I should have known: money now is better than a legacy of character for posterity.
By fitsnews April 27, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Subzero,
Really?
http://www.fitsnews.com/2010/02/06/cola-cops-in-trouble/
-FITS
P.S. – We are also close to breaking a major update on the Benjamin story.
By SubZeroIQ April 27, 2010 at 9:28 pm
FITS: Thanks for the link; but nothing original there. I gues I began looking at you with the Judge Segars-Andrews case and there was no link to that in the many stories that radiated from the one that first attracted me to you.
You still did not answer with whom did you “cooperate” and about what.
Be that as it may. I am the brave one who posed the tough questions to Tandy Carter and he did not anwer any of them except the one that was adopted from me by a reporter in the room. The one about whether Benjamin called 911.
What Carter did not answer are my questions about whether Benjamin had called him personally and whether Carter authorized eight CPD cars and the City spokesman to rush to the scene. Will you break any of that?
My other important question is whether the red Tercel had been moved and by whom and why? Did anyone else notice? It rested in the direction opposite the traffic in that lane.
Whatever you do, don’t make it a political or racial issue. A working woman is severely injured. God bless.
By Ynotfirst April 27, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Columbia cops won’t even take reports and complaints.
Columbia cops allow or even participate in stalking.
By the Space Boogey April 28, 2010 at 1:47 am
South Carolina’s police force is equivalent to The Kremlin. On the West Coast everyone grows ornamental marijuana for shrubs. Try that in SC and no one will ever see you again.
One out of Three State Troopers is a “hitman,” illegal guns-for-hire. For approxiamately 20 Grand you can take anybody out.
By the Space Boogey April 28, 2010 at 1:59 am
Columbia had no more than SIX hippies during the revolution. They walked from The Statehouse, where the Ku Klux Khlannie flag is shown down Main Street.
They got arrested, and taken to Fort Jackson. They were never seen again.
Next day, state media reported that six people resembling Hippies were seen on Main Street after purported release from jail. No one could verify them as the same ones who were arrested.
They looked around briefly, hopped in a car and were never seen again in SC!