Legal

A lawyer for Gizmodo says the gadget blog could sue the sheriff's office in San Mateo County, Calif., for raiding an editor's home last Friday as part of a criminal probe into an errant iPhone prototype.

The option of a lawsuit "is available because search is not the appropriate method in this situation," Thomas R. Burke, a media lawyer and partner in the San Francisco offices of Davis Wright Tremaine, told CNET. He said the search warrant violated a California journalist shield law designed to limit searches of newsrooms.

Burke added, however, that he has been … Read more

San Mateo County prosecutors are defending the search of a Gizmodo editor's home and seizure of his computers that are part of a criminal investigation into an iPhone prototype lost by an Apple employee.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney, told CNET on Tuesday evening that prosecutors had considered whether reporter shield laws applied to the search and seizure aimed at the gadget blog--and decided to proceed after carefully reviewing the rules.

"My prosecutor who is handling it considered this issue right off the bat when it was being brought into him and had some good reasons why … Read more

Police have identified the unnamed person who found the prototype iPhone lost by an Apple engineer in a Silicon Valley bar last month, a prosecutor confirmed to CNET on Tuesday.

Investigators have interviewed the person who sold the prototype to Gizmodo for $5,000, Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said in a telephone interview. He did not disclose the name of the person, and it wasn't clear if whoever found the "4G" phone was responsible for selling it or how police found the person.

The phone has been the subject of massive … Read more

The criminal investigation into Apple's errant iPhone prototype took a new twist this week, when Gawker Media claimed that the warrant used by police to search an editor's home was invalid.

It's clear that federal and state law generally provides journalists--even gadget bloggers--with substantial protections by curbing searches of their employees' workspaces. But it's equally clear that journalists suspected of criminal activity do not benefit from the legal shields that newspapers and broadcast media have painstakingly erected over the last half-century.

No less an authority than a California appeals court has ruled that the state's … Read more

The criminal probe into Apple's errant iPhone prototype is expected to broaden, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNET.

San Mateo County's investigation may expand beyond Gawker Media's Gizmodo, which acknowledged buying the prototype for $5,000, and the unknown person who sold it to the gadget blog, the source said. Police obtained a warrant to search a Gizmodo editor's home on Friday evening. CNET was the first to report an investigation was under way earlier that day.

One reason for an expanded investigation is obvious: law enforcement wants to learn who … Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether minors have the right to buy violent video games in a case that tests whether computer software is guaranteed the same free speech protections as books, newspapers, and magazines.

On Monday, the justices agreed to review a California law that a federal appeals court struck down last year on the grounds that even children and teenagers enjoy free speech rights that are protected by the First Amendment. The case will be heard late this year or in early 2011.

California is one of a string of states that have enacted similar laws … Read more

A class action lawsuit against Apple is alleging that the company relies on a faulty technology in its iPhones and iPods to determine whether a device has been exposed to liquid and can be repaired under warranty.

Filed in the Northern District of California by Charlene Gallion on April 15, the class action lawsuit claims that the Liquid Submersion Indicators technology that Apple uses is inaccurate, which could lead to false positive results.

The Liquid Submersion Indicators are triggered when liquid has entered the device. The indicators are located in the headphone jack and in the dock connector housing of … Read more

A blog post by Adobe Flash platform evangelist Lee Brimelow has brought more fire to what's become a very public fight between Apple and Adobe over the inclusion of Flash and other Adobe technologies in Apple's portable devices.

In it, Brimelow highlights the differences between the two companies, and compares Apple's recent decision to bar third-party APIs from app development to a game of chess, where Apple is using developers as "pawns" in a "crusade against Adobe." He goes on to say that he plans not to purchase another Apple product until someone … Read more

Apple's distaste for Adobe Systems' Flash went a step further Thursday with new iPhone programming terms that could shut down an Adobe tactic to slip its technology onto the iPhone through the back door.

Flash is a widely used foundation for applications and video-streaming sites on the Web. Apple doesn't like it and blocks it on the iPhone and iPad, though it's ubiquitous on PCs and laptops.

Adobe sidesteps this ban with its upcoming Flash Pro CS5--due to be formally announced next week--which can package Flash applications so they run as standalone programs on the iPhone. Last … Read more