The furor continues over tech blog Gizmodo’s acquisition of a next-generation iPhone which it bought from someone who found it in a bar in Redwood City. To find out how Gizmodo got the iPhone, police seized the computers of an editor for Gawker, Gizmodo’s parent company. Gawker hired a First Amendment lawyer to fight the police action. -db
Legal Pad
A Cal Law blog
April 26, 2010
By Zusha Elinson
Police seized computers from a Gawker editor’s house Friday in order to figure out how the blog got its hands on Steve Jobs’ precious next generation iPhone.
Gawker has hired Tom Burke — a First Amendment specialist from Davis Wright & Tremaine in SF — to work on the case. The blog takes the position that Jason Chen, the editor who got a hold of the iPhone, is protected by journalist shield laws. Gawker COO Gaby Darbyshire had this to say on her Twitter feed today:
“We raised our objections over the weekend and met in person with the authorities today. They’re reviewing the shield law issue.”
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, one of Gawker’s blogs, Gizmodo, posted a bunch of stuff last week about the next-generation iPhone that it bought for $5,000 from someone who “found” it at a bar in Redwood City.
Gizmodo gave it back to Apple. But as the search warrant shows, San Mateo authorities aren’t done investigating.
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