In case you’ve been living in a cave this week, here’s the deal: a prototype of Apple’s upcoming iPhone made it’s way into the hands of Gizmodo’s editor.
Who then had his door bashed in by cops with a search warrant, despite a law on the books prohibiting the confiscation journalists’ property.
Apple:
I’m typing here on one of your machines… plus I have a Mac laptop opened next to me, an iPhone 3Gs plugged into that, an older G5 downstairs in the basement office, an iTouch upstairs and another iPhone in the kitchen. There’s even a pair of iPod Minis floating around here somewhere. As a loyal customer, I’m asking you: what the hell were you thinking? You’ve fallen hard since flying the Jolly Roger over you headquarters, no? I mean, I understand Secret Club… but isn’t there a line here somewhere between “punitive action” and “Gestapo?”
For a company that enjoys working it’s customers—nay, fan base—into a lather of anticipation before launching new products, surely an eventual leak of a product was expected to occur at some point?! And surely you had a mitigation plan in place that didn’t require the neuvo-American KGB, also known as California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team?
Seems to me, you owe your customers an apology for being a dick.
I’ll let Jon Stewart take it from here:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Appholes | ||||
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California:
A chill went through me as I read the article. I could’ve sworn, just this summer, I was reading about how Iran was evil because they were terrorizing the media and preventing coverage of their election debacles and the nasty aftermath? Is my memory failing? Because I’m confused: if my memory serves me, then I need to know… why are you in such a hurry to emulate their regime? I understand, blogging is new territory, and maybe the rules about journalists are still somewhat fuzzy as applied to bloggers, but to go from fuzzy to “screw it, kick down the door” in a snap sounds just a touch on the rash side. Was it necessary to trample both the guy’s rights and property in the same blow? Couldn’t you have called a locksmith, at least?
Californians, let me tell you something: Chicago is awesome. Come over. Admittedly, you’ll miss the surfable ocean, undulating hills, and gorgeous trees, but on the other hand, our state is less broke than yours, and our police force doesn’t seem to have gone quite as commando. No forest fires, floods, or mudslides, either. And, I’ve sat in your traffic… seriously, think about moving here.
Apple & California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, you really bit it big time this week. All you had to do, Apple, was nothing. And CREACT, for all your rapid enforcement techniques, it seems someone forgot to certify y’all in either discretion or common sense.
You both failed. Spectacularly.
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I'm Jason. I make people shine. My mission is to help 1 million people tell their stories better. 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
There’s no protection for handling stolen property. They made a massive mistake at Gizmodo. They aren’t journalists — they’r thieves. Imagine they “found” your car sitting outside with the keys in it. Do they get to take it? Or pay someone who “found” it? Nope.
Hiding behind some fake journalist protection law is bullshit. I’ll calling it on this one, Jason.
BTW: Steve doesn’t owe me an apology. It was his intellectual property. And I run a full Apple shop.
Frank—Let’s do a substitution… a Chevy test driver leaves the track in an unreleased concept car. Car & Driver does two things: 1. They take it, and 2. They take a bunch of photos of the car and release those photos to the public. To #1, no question. To #2, how is this different than when they try to take photos of the car on the actual track? There is a known and predictable cat-and-mouse game the company plays with journalists on that one.
Now let’s look at GM’s response options: It could publicly ask for the car back; it can send the police with a flatbed and a warrant for the garage to the journalist’s home; it can publicly humiliate the journalist for his lack of character in a way that teaches its market how the brand and market should interact; or it can send the police to smash down the journalist’s door paramilitary style to confiscate not just the car, but all his computers, phones, cameras, digital picture frames, printers, and anything else that could conceivably be storing one of those photos.
Apple fails for embracing the last option, and for being more interested in being right legally than in furthering it’s role as something greater than “just another company” in our culture. Apple showed a definitive lack of imagination here, and an utter disregard for elegance in execution. It abandoned it’s core principles. With one decision, Apple went from a place that spurs imaginative thinking to a member of Big Business. There’s no law that will help them get that back.
CA fails for simply continuing a long trend of anoverly aggressive execution of the law.
How about Apple valuing their lame policy over keeping their humanity:
http://bx.businessweek.com/apple/view?url=http://gizmodo.com/5523673/steve-wozniak-on-apple-security-employee-termination-and-gray-powell
Would you buy a “must-have” product from the biggest jerk in your neighborhood? I vote with my wallet and Apple will never get a dime from me.