Apple's newest iPhone, the 4S, has been on the market for a few  weeks, but the saga surrounding the leak of a prototype of the  previous-generation iPhone 4 is only now coming to a close.
Brian  Hogan and Sage Wallower pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of  theft of lost property for selling a phone that an Apple tester  accidentally left in a bar. The two men, both in their 20s and with no  previous criminal records, each received a year of probation and 40  hours of community service. They were also ordered to pay Apple  restitution of $250.
According to technology blog Gizmodo.com, it  all started when Apple engineer Gray Powell headed out to celebrate his  27th birthday at a German beer garden. Powell accidentally left his  phone at the bar. A forgotten phone isn't usually a newsworthy event -  unless, of course, the phone involved is a top-secret design produced by  one of the world's most notoriously close-mouthed technology companies,  cleverly disguised as a run-of-the-mill older model. Which is exactly  what Powell's phone was. (1)
Hogan, who was also at the beer  garden that night, took the phone home, not realizing its true  importance. He intended to return it the next day. Once he discovered  what he had, he tried to contact Apple. His calls were ignored. Next, he  and Wallower checked to see if perhaps a technology media outlet might  take their story more seriously. Gizmodo, which is owned by Gawker Media  LLC, listened. It offered $5,000 for the device. The site proceeded to  post photos and conjectures about the new phone. Its software had been  remotely disabled, but that didn't stop the enterprising editors from  examining the hardware. Gizmodo says that when it was asked to return  the phone, it immediately arranged to do so.
Apple, however, may  not have been satisfied with just getting its phone back. The company,  which keeps most of its prototypes bolted to desks in its super-secured  campus, was not happy about photos of its upcoming product being splayed  all over the Internet. Much of that displeasure was likely directed at  Jason Chen, a Gizmodo editor who reported on the dissected phone's  innards.
California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team  (REACT) - Silicon Valley's high-tech police - raided Chen's home on the  authority of a search warrant issued by San Mateo County Superior Court  Judge Clifford V. Cretan. Officers left with a pile of computers and  hard drives; Chen was left with a broken door.
Like others at the  time, I believed the search to be illegal. While others invoked  California's shield laws, which offer special protections for  journalists, I saw no reason why anyone, journalist or not, should have  been subject to a search when the evidence that any crime had actually  been committed was minimal at best.
Eventually, the search warrant  was withdrawn, which is a pretty good indication that it should not  have been issued in the first place, and Chen's property was returned.  Conveniently for Apple, however, Chen didn't get his computers and other  research materials back until after the iPhone 4 was safely on the  market.
Neither the men who sold the phone nor the journalist did  anything obviously wrong in this case. Apple apologists (and government  lawyers defending any lawsuits by Chen and Gizmodo, who were never  charged) will claim the misdemeanor guilty pleas as evidence that  justice, as well as beer, is served in Silicon Valley. If you believe  this, I have an old IBM PCjr to sell you that will work just great as a  server for your website.
Hogan and Wallower faced a pretty easy  choice: They could take a slap on the wrist and get on with their lives,  or they could run up a fortune in legal fees (which not every  20-something in Silicon Valley can afford) and risk felony convictions  that would ruin their prospects for security clearances and job  opportunities. Don't confuse justice with expediency.
REACT needs  reform, and the San Mateo County bench could do with a little review on  the legal and ethical hazards of being a hometown judge.
There  were concerns about REACT long before the iPhone incident. The task  force's website states that the organization "depends on our industry  partners," who provide know-how and other support. After the iPhone  raid, Nick Muyo, the public information officer of the Santa Clara  County district attorney's office, told the Los Angeles Times that  technology companies, including Apple, "have open invitations" to attend  meetings of REACT's steering committee, and that many companies send  representatives. (2)
Letting law enforcement get too cozy with  private industry can lead to an erosion of professional judgment.  Someone needed to tell Apple that interference with the choreography of  its product rollouts is not a crime, and that journalists' homes and  hard drives are not reference libraries.
Of course, there is  another important lesson in this story: Don't take corporate secrets  into a bar. According to some reports about a missing iPhone 4S in  August, Apple may not have learned that one.
This time, however, no search warrants were issued. Apple's latest gizmo is nevertheless selling quite well.