Apple iPhone Raid Raises Legal Questions

Receiving Stolen Goods?

But Gizmodo was not guilty of receiving stolen goods, as the iPhone prototype is still legally the property of Apple?

“I am not a criminal lawyer, but I suspect they would probably be guilty of receiving stolen goods, but what do you do about that? How do you decide on the level of penalty? There is also the question of do the authorities know that it was stolen?” she said.

Professor Woods feels that there was a certain amount of recklessness of behalf of Gizmodo, as they must have known that they were holding onto confidential information. She cited a House of Lords ruling that, if a diary is found in public place, the finder cannot treat the contents as public knowledge.

After all, she said, if someone ran off with your car after you had left the keys in the door, it is still your car. When Apple officially release the product, and the intellectual property is out there, then it is no longer confidential.

Reckless Or Good Journalism?

Professor Woods feels that making this a criminal offence is not the way to go. Apple lost the device, but she suspects that legal action for confidentially breaches will be brought by Apple against Gizmodo, as the prototype still officially belongs to the company in the eyes of the law.

“Presumably Apple is after the person who sold the device,” she said. “Apple will be keen to find where the leak is, but protection to journalist sources comes in here. If you cannot keep sources secret people will stop giving news and, in the US, they are used to having strong protection for journalist rights.”

When asked about the police raid, Professor Woods, said that it was a “very strong” response.

“The obvious route is that Gizmodo parent Gawker Media will probably sue to get computers returned,” she said. “The raid was a very strong response and there are concerns that, by seizing these computers, authorities will be able to trace not just this guy (who sold Gizmodo the device), but all other sources for other news reports as well.”