Well, this is unexpected. The iPhone 4G saga just got a whole lot crazier - dare I say it, a whole lot more ridiculous. Have you ever reported anything like a phone or something similarly small stolen to the police? What was their reaction? Did you ever get the device back? Did they send an army of officers to get your device back? No? Odd. They raided Jason Chen's house, and took four computers and two servers. Update: And thus our true colours reveal. "The raid that San Mateo area cops conducted last week on the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen came at the behest of a special multi-agency task force that was commissioned to work with the computer industry to tackle high-tech crimes. And Apple Inc. sits on the task force's steering committee." Update II: According to TechCrunch, the investigation has been put on hold while the DA ponders Gizmodo's shield defence. Update III: Some legal insight from a constitutional law and first amendment expert and a law professor. The gist? The DA has said no one has been charged with anything here, making this just an investigation - however, this makes the search and seizing of material worse. "If the police are literally just gathering information, with no suspect targeted yet, then a subpoena against a journalist would have probably been smarter than a search warranted that resulted in the front door of Chen's home being bashed in."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-29
Indeed, and this particular case is exceptionally retarded. They should never have let the device off campus in the hands of anyone who wasn't on the Board, or at worst the lead designer (i.e. someone who gives a shit about the bottom line). Letting some schmuck take it bar-hopping was utter stupidity. NDA or not, accidents happen.
Idiotic or not, unfortunately it is the way of the business world. As we become more of a capitalist technocracy here in the States, we're going to see a lot more massive police action for petty incidents like this. I just wonder how many legitimate thefts, assaults and burglaries were occurring right down the block the night they executed that search warrant?
And I can't wait to hear about the brand new POST training facility or whatever it is Apple will so graciously donate the funds for next year...
Member since:2010-04-27
I believe the US is far more a Plutocracy than a Democracy. Our government is so addicted to the cashflow provided by mega-corps that they will pass any law necessary to appease them, less they move to another country and take their money with them. Combine the unconstitutional laws with the Fortune 500 buying out any promising startup before it can see the light of day and there is not much incentive or ability to innovate. Soon you end up like Warner Music filing suit to extract compensation for the "value" that isn't there. Unfortunately the majority are too blind and complacent to notice or care, just so long as they can check what everyone else is doing through Facebook 24-7 through their shiny 4G iPhone that they are willing to work increasingly long days, while inflation passes their salary increases, in order to purchase it. I think the ones who show outrage towards such practices as Apple has exhibited are by far the minority.
Member since:2006-01-12
Yes clearly it's stupid since no one gets hurt when chinese steal and reproduce something that company spend 2 bucks to research and design. Yeah clearly we don't need that tax money since we have heavy industry, wait we don't, oh well we still have IT support industry, wait we don't it was Abu in phone, oh well we still have coding industry, what some guys are coding stuff free, well we still have service industry, yes to serve poor people in food lines.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/197583-apple-s-research-and-develop...
Member since:2007-09-06
Maybe patents? Maybe copyright? Maybe a company that accepts responsability for keeping "company secrets" instead of assuming some arbitrary law can magically put the cat back in the bag.
If a secret is so important; keep it a secret. Don't rely on the government to do it for you.
(and seriously, let's not try and validate this with "eveel crazed chineses ninja monkey boogiemen". At least try to make it a greed sell with something like "companies want to keep there secrets" instead of a fear sell with "nebulous shadows are coming to steels our wares! Only the government can protect us!"
Member since:2005-06-29
So, what do we have patents and copyrights for?
Trade secrets are covered enough by NDAs, which gives companies the legal handle to (rightfully so) seek compensation when an employee breaks said NDA. An NDA is particularly effective since it covers only the employer and employee, and doesn't extend towards journalists or other people who have had no part in signing said NDA.
Trade secrets are basically an NDA that extend to everyone, including you and I, even though we never signed any NDA or have ever agreed to not share any information. It gives companies yet another handle to blame their own failings (i.e., keeping stuff secret) on ordinary citizens who never had anything to do with the company in the first place.
Had we stuck to the concept of the NDA, then we would've never had to create countless dubious and shady legal provisions protecting "journalists", provisions which can be bent and broken depending on who has the most money (hint: it's not us).
It is a corporation-infused concept that has no bearing in a modern democracy. If you as a company are unable to keep the mouths of your employees shut, then that's YOUR failing, and your failing alone - not mine, not the media's.
Edited 2010-04-27 11:59 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run."There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Member since:
2005-06-29
I've always found the concept of the trade secret retarded - as if companies don't have enough means to shield themselves as it is. If a company wants to keep something a secret, then good luck to them - they don't need the law for that.
Right now, they can basically claim whatever they want a trade secret and be done with it - which is idiotic.