| Why the buzz ..... Stolen i Phone Debacle ? | | | | problem than the iPhone story. The Twitter documents |
| | | | were clearly stolen from Twitter by a hacker who |
| The biggest story in tech today is the Gizmodo stolen | | | | broke into their email accounts. Here's a full description |
| iPhone debacle (note that I use the word "stolen" only | | | | of how that happened. Ultimately we decided that it |
| to keep the description brief, not in any legal way). An | | | | was reasonable for us to publish the documents |
| Apple employee with a iPhone prototype left it in a bar. | | | | because the value of the news was substantial. And |
| Someone found it and sold it to Gizmodo for $5,000. | | | | the hacker also made it clear that he intended for the |
| Gizmodo got a huge scoop, but they are now facing | | | | documents to be published. We spent a great deal of |
| criminal and possibly civil liability issues. John Gruber has | | | | time convincing him not to do that, because most of |
| a good summary of the first part of the story. How | | | | the documents were simply too personally sensitive |
| this all plays out is still being decided, but the police | | | | and embarrassing. |
| have now raided a Gizmodo editor's home and have | | | | In the Gizmodo/iPhone case things are less clear. The |
| seized property. | | | | phone was left behind by an engineer and was found |
| A number of sites have compared this to the Twitter | | | | by another individual. Should that individual have |
| document scandal that we were in the middle of last | | | | returned it to Apple? You can argue that, but you can't |
| year. And we've received a number of inquiries about | | | | argue that Apple wasn't negligent in letting it be found |
| whether or not we would have handled this iPhone | | | | in the first place. |
| situation the same way as Gizmodo did. | | | | Where Gizmodo made a mistake in my opinion is |
| I'm not going to go into the legal issues around this | | | | when they purchased the phone. This is something we |
| because I'm just not qualified. I will say that having the | | | | would never do. We've been asked if we wanted to |
| police raid my house would very likely be a net positive | | | | purchase information in the past that would have |
| event – it would place us firmly in the middle of the | | | | made for some great stories and we have always |
| story, and all eyes would be on us. So don't think | | | | declined. Our policy is to never pay for information. |
| Gawker is trembling in their boots just yet. I would hope | | | | That isn't common, and even the big media outlets will |
| that any legal pressure would be on me though, not | | | | occasionally pay for a story. But it just isn't something |
| one of our writers. | | | | we're comfortable with. |
| But putting that aside, how would I have handled the | | | | Does the legal case against Gizmodo rely on the fact |
| story? | | | | that they purchased the iPhone? I don't know, but it |
| The Twitter documents were emailed to us without us | | | | sure does make them look bad. |
| requesting them in any way. We contacted Twitter | | | | Apple's complaint will be that information about the |
| and their lawyers immediately, before publishing any | | | | phone leaked early, giving competitors a head start on |
| documents. There were lots of behind the scenes | | | | copying the features. That's a reasonable complaint, |
| discussions, but Twitter made it very clear from the | | | | but it seems to me they can make the same case |
| first conversation that they would not take legal action | | | | against Engadget, which also posted leaked photos of |
| against us for publishing the documents. They just | | | | the device. The same damage was done there, and |
| wanted to make sure that they weren't all published. | | | | they posted before Gizmodo. |
| Twitter certainly tried to stop us from publishing any of | | | | The bottom line is this. If someone walked the new |
| the documents, but they put moral and ethical pressure | | | | iPhone into our offices and offered to let us take |
| on us, not legal pressure. And we never came to full | | | | pictures of it, we'd do that in a second. If Apple or the |
| agreement on what the ethically correct thing to do | | | | police came after us, we'd lawyer up and make it as |
| was – I wrote my thoughts on that here. | | | | big of a circus as possible. The only thing we wouldn't |
| In some ways the Twitter story was more of a | | | | do is pay for the device. |