4 ms·

Is receiving a good for your own personal use or resale the same thing as receiving it for the purpose of reporting on it then returning it right after? Intent

Is receiving a good for your own personal use or resale the same thing as receiving it for the purpose of reporting on it then returning it right after? Intent here seems to be overlooked by quite a bit of the commentary. That said, is there a public good for having obvious trade secrets reported on to the public? I am not sure a good case can be made there. However, there are like 3 secret IPhones running around. Clearly, if it's a trade secret Apple is not working as hard as usual on keeping it for some reason. How many times have we seen leaks like this from Apple? Not very frequently.

CamperBob 16y ago
Is receiving a good for your own personal use or resale the same thing as receiving it for the purpose of reporting on it then returning it right after? Intent here seems to be overlooked by quite a bit of the commentary. I don't see that the specific crime is important here; what's important is that goods which were technically stolen under California law were received by Gizmodo for the purpose of committing another crime under California law (revealing trade secrets). And no, calling a tech-support line in Uttar Pradesh and asking if they've recently misplaced an engineering prototype would not be considered a legitimate attempt to return the phone. As a longstanding EFF member, I just wrote to Matt Zimmerman to ask what this case could possibly have to do with journalistic privilege.
anigbrowl 16y ago
Well, reporting isn't a selfless act, most of the time - the goal is to match eyeballs to advertisements. You're right that they would have been a lot better off to get rid of the thing before they published a word, rather than waiting for Jobs to call. Perhaps they were nervous about the fact that they damaged it during the teardown.

4 ms·

Is receiving a good for your own personal use or resale the same thing as receiving it for the purpose of reporting on it then returning it right after? Intent

by jboydyhacker 16y ago

CamperBob 16y ago
Is receiving a good for your own personal use or resale the same thing as receiving it for the purpose of reporting on it then returning it right after? Intent here seems to be overlooked by quite a bit of the commentary. I don't see that the specific crime is important here; what's important is that goods which were technically stolen under California law were received by Gizmodo for the purpose of committing another crime under California law (revealing trade secrets). And no, calling a tech-support line in Uttar Pradesh and asking if they've recently misplaced an engineering prototype would not be considered a legitimate attempt to return the phone. As a longstanding EFF member, I just wrote to Matt Zimmerman to ask what this case could possibly have to do with journalistic privilege.
anigbrowl 16y ago
Well, reporting isn't a selfless act, most of the time - the goal is to match eyeballs to advertisements. You're right that they would have been a lot better off to get rid of the thing before they published a word, rather than waiting for Jobs to call. Perhaps they were nervous about the fact that they damaged it during the teardown.