By Katie Marsa
A probe of the Government in the high-profile case of an iPhone 4 prototype which was bought by a gadget blog after it went missing from Apple last spring is on the verge of taking her fruits, according to a published report.
CNet on Thursday looking for an update on the case, contacted Stephen Wagstaffe, district attorney for the county of San Mateo, California, who told the publication that he believes that the investigation as early as next month, could close as researchers are close to their interviews for him to present their findings.
The investigation dates back nearly a year last April when Robert Gray Powell, a 27-year-old Apple employee who works on the then unreleased iPhone 4 's baseband, accidentally left an unmarked prototype of the handset on a German beer garden in Redwood CityCalif. While he was out celebrating his birthday.
Brian Hogan, a 22-year-old student, then the prototype found and sold it to Gawker Media's Gizmodo for $ 5,000, with the help of the 27-year-old University of California at Berkeley student Robert Sage wallower, who allegedly acted as a fence.
Within days, Gizmodo had photos and videos from the device published on its website, along with a teardown of the hardware, pieces of which were then picked up by the national media and broadcast on network television news stations.
Apple began almost immediately, pressure on local authorities an investigation into the matter, claiming that the prototype was so valuable--because the product had not yet been introduced to the public--that no price tag can be placed on it. At the same time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally contacted Gizmodo editor Brian Lam through email, he asks the device back.
So far, no charges are filed in the case, which officially "a felony theft research." The next item is or an actual crime has taken place and those responsible should be held, researchers should determine that laws were broken.
For his part, jobs has raised the possibility that the device can actually stolen from Powell at the bar, instead of just discovered after have left behind.
"There is an ongoing study," jobs told the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg during all things d Conference of last June. "I can tell you what I do know, though. To create a product that you need to test it. You have to wear them outside. One of our employees wore a. There is a discussion about whether he left it in a bar, or it was stolen from his pocket.
"The person who tried to sell it, they called Engadget found, they are called Gizmodo," he continued. "The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. [...] And this man tried to destroy evidence, and his roommate called the police.
"So this is a story that is great: it has theft, it got buy stolen property, it's got extortion, I am sure there are some sex there," joked jobs. "The whole thing is quite colorful. The DA is looking for it, and to my knowledge they have someone to make sure they only see things that relate to this case. I do not know how it will end. "
For their part, prosectors have maintained that media organisations such as Gizmodo can not expect to be immune from criminal law if they commit crimes. As such, they obtained a warrant to search of the House of Jason Chen, one of the editors of the publication, and proceeded to break his door and seized four computers, two servers and an assortment of other electronics in late April 2010.
But as CNet points out, the allegations made by the Reporters Committee for freedom of the press and other interest groups can serve to complicated with their claims that police the Federal law on Privacy, which broadly immunizes news organisations from searches violated--unless the journalists themselves the crime committed.
In addition, California law can provide protection to writers for newspapers, magazines, and "other periodical publications," the report added, which is a term that a State Court has applied to an Apple online publication before: Apple Insider.
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