iPhone thief: Gizmodo said it was OK
It was an alter boy, an alter boy did it! The 21-year-old who took a $5,000 payment from Gizmodo in exchange for a super secret iPhone prototype he didn’t have the right to sell has come forward, saying that he regrets his actions.
Wired reports that Gizmodo told Brian J. Hogan, the guy who “found” Apple’s fourth generation iPhone prototype in a bar, “that there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press.”
Hogan’s lawyer says that his client is a model young man that teaches kids swimming at a local community center and that he’s also volunteered at an orphanage in China, which sounds an awful lot like a plea for leniency.
He went drinking with Gray Powell
and all he got was a felony conviction.
“He regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone,” Hogan’s hired legal help said in statement. “Even though he did obtain some compensation from Gizmodo, Brian thought that it was so that they could review the phone.”
I wanna know what he spent the money on.
The voice jurisprudence
Meanwhile, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told Wired that the person who found the phone, “is very definitely one of the people who is being looked at as a suspect in theft. Assuming there’s ultimately a crime here. That’s what we’re still gauging, is this a crime, is it a theft?”
Well, given how contrite Brian’s acting, he and his attorney don’t seem to have much doubt about whether or not a crime has been committed. I suppose what the district attorney is still cogitating over is whether that crime extends to Brian Chen, the Gizmodo editor that paid $5,000 for the stolen property in question.
So, has a crime been committed and, if yes, do the shield laws cover what Gizmodo did?
Related posts:
May 6th, 2010
This story shows aggain the ability of men to forget everything by drinking a lot of beer. But I guess I wouldn’t drink so much if I had an Iphone prototype with me. I think Gary just couldn’t live without beer:-).
May 11th, 2010
This post sums up a mind-bogglingly heinous and perverse tendency gaining popularity in america (the world?). Read the following:
“…given how contrite Brian’s acting, he and his attorney don’t seem to have much doubt about whether or not a crime has been committed.”
Excuse me, but being sorry (contrition) does NOT equal guilt!!!! Contrition says “if i harmed you, i’m sorry.” The messed up thinking behind thinking it is a statement of bad intention is as follows: ‘if the guy didnt do something he knew was wrong, than he would say he didnt do something wrong, protecting himself’. Why can’t there be anyone accepted as possessing the ability to say “I did not mean any harm, but if I caused harm, or commited a crime, I truly want to make it right”? And WTF does this writer mean about this being an “aweful lot like a plea for leniency”:
“Hogan’s lawyer says that his client is a model young man that teaches kids swimming at a local community center and that he’s also volunteered at an orphanage in China.”
If information about past actions shows the character of an individual, and that has a bearing on a ruling about a person’s motives, then it’s both relevant, and (while obviously a ‘plea’ for grace) a perfectly ethical endeavor. If he did indeed teach kids swimming and volunteer at a Chinese orphanage, he did so before the iphone 4g ever passed through his hands, and neither the acts, nor their appearance in this case, can be judged as a negative.
Get a life, a brain, and some motivation to use both you guys, and then maybe even some morality would help you and your country out a bit. We could use it!!!!