MarketNeutral
27th April 2010, 03:38 AM
POLICE have raided the home of a Gizmodo editor who last week revealed details of a secret next-generation iPhone prototype.
Gizmodo published excerpts from a search warrant that gave police permission to seize property from editor Jason Chen's home that was "used as the means of committing a felony" or "tends to show that a felony has been committed".
The search warrant signed by a local judge specifically authorised the seizure of "printed documents, images and/or notations pertaining to the sale and/or purchase of the stolen iPhone prototype".
Gizmodo last week said it purchased the iPhone prototype for $US5,000 ($AU5,394) from an unidentified person who found it in a California bar, where it had been lost by a 27-year-old Apple software engineer named Gray Powell.
Chen said in a post on the Gizmodo website on Monday that he and his wife returned from having dinner out on Friday to find police searching their home in the northern California county of San Mateo.v
"The officers had a computer and were cataloguing all the items they took from my home," Chen said. "They told me they were here for a few hours already and had to break the front door open because I wasn't home to open the door."
The officers, members of the California Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, took four computers and two computer servers from the couple's house, according to the posting.
Gizmodo has said it returned the iPhone prototype to Apple after the notoriously secretive company asked for it back.
Gizmodo also published a letter from a lawyer for its owner, Gawker Media, objecting to the raid on Chen's home and arguing that a "search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist".
"We expect the immediate return of the materials that you confiscated from Mr Chen," said the letter from Gaby Darbyshire, who is also Gawker's chief operating officer.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/editors-home-raided-in-lost-iphone-probe/story-e6frgakx-1225858644348
Gizmodo published excerpts from a search warrant that gave police permission to seize property from editor Jason Chen's home that was "used as the means of committing a felony" or "tends to show that a felony has been committed".
The search warrant signed by a local judge specifically authorised the seizure of "printed documents, images and/or notations pertaining to the sale and/or purchase of the stolen iPhone prototype".
Gizmodo last week said it purchased the iPhone prototype for $US5,000 ($AU5,394) from an unidentified person who found it in a California bar, where it had been lost by a 27-year-old Apple software engineer named Gray Powell.
Chen said in a post on the Gizmodo website on Monday that he and his wife returned from having dinner out on Friday to find police searching their home in the northern California county of San Mateo.v
"The officers had a computer and were cataloguing all the items they took from my home," Chen said. "They told me they were here for a few hours already and had to break the front door open because I wasn't home to open the door."
The officers, members of the California Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, took four computers and two computer servers from the couple's house, according to the posting.
Gizmodo has said it returned the iPhone prototype to Apple after the notoriously secretive company asked for it back.
Gizmodo also published a letter from a lawyer for its owner, Gawker Media, objecting to the raid on Chen's home and arguing that a "search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist".
"We expect the immediate return of the materials that you confiscated from Mr Chen," said the letter from Gaby Darbyshire, who is also Gawker's chief operating officer.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/editors-home-raided-in-lost-iphone-probe/story-e6frgakx-1225858644348