Apple claims that photos of a prototype version of the iPhone were “immensely damaging” to the company. This comes from court documents released recently, detailing a meeting between the police and Apple after Gizmodo posted images of the phone on its website.
“By publishing details about the phone and its features, sales of current Apple products are hurt wherein people that would have otherwise purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released, thereby hurting overall sales and negatively affecting Apple’s earnings,” said George Riley, a lawyer from O’Melveny and Myers that represents Apple. Riley called the potential dollar amount lost by Apple as huge.
Brian Hogan, who found the iPhone, was turned in by Katherine Martinson, his roommate. Martinson wanted to avoid being turned in on criminal charges. “[Rick Orloff, Apple director of information security] said that Witness Martinson contacted him due to the fact that Suspect Hogan connected the stolen iPhone to her computer and she believed that Apple would eventually trace the iPhone back to her IP address,” the document stated.
Martinson and others tried to talk Hogan out of giving the phone to the press because of what it would do the the career of the Apple engineer that lost the phone. Hogan responded, “Sucks to be him. He lost his phone. Shouldn’t have lost his phone,” according to the affidavit.
No charges have been filed, and Gizmodo is currently claiming that their computers were seized illegally, citing laws protecting the press. Another prototype surfaced recently in Vietnam.
Source: Computerworld
