The iPhone prototype story that has stolen the headlines for the past week-or-so still won’t stop.
Now, Gizmodo reports that as of Friday night, California police entered the home of Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen and seized four computers and two servers, despite the publication’s lawyer warning that a raid would be not be legal in light of both state and federal laws that prevent law officials from confiscating property of a journalist. But whether police officials feel comfortable examining the evidence is unclear, reports TechCrunch, which said the investigation is on hold while the district attorney evaluates whether the Shield Law protects Chen’s possessions.
To be sure, the case is unusual. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for what may have been a stolen next-generation iPhone. The story captivated paidContent’s State of the Gadget Media event last week. During the panel discussion, Gizmodo’s publisher and head of Gawker Media Nick Denton said he did not regret a thing, while an editor from CNET said if given the opportunity, he wouldn’t pay for the phone “to incentivize criminality.” MacRumors also said it wouldn’t pay for the story, but would have run a story.
With not much precedent for a case, many are wondering if this will be the first major test to see if bloggers have the same protections as traditional journalists. Gizmodo is definitely positioning the case that way. Its lawyer wrote in a letter to the police: “Jason is a journalist who works full time for our company…He works from home, which is his de facto newsroom, and all equipment used by him there is used for the purposes of his employment with us.” The strategy is wise, however, as techdirt points out, the Shield law protects journalists from revealing their sources—not from journalists committing crimes. This might come down to whether the iPhone, which was reportedly left in a bar, is considered stolen property or not.