Posts Tagged by raid

I just read about the police raid and seizure of computers from the house of the Gizmodo editor (Jason Chen), who wrote the story about ‘the next iPhone’ – from start to finish. While I struggle to consider the alternative that a judge in San Mateo County (home of Redwood City – and the bar where it all began) could find just cause to sign a warrant allowing the police to do so, I think this takes us a few pages down the ‘What Not To Do When You Lose An Unreleased Product‘ handbook.

Apple is headquartered in Cupertino. Cupertino is a city in Santa Clara County. The bar where “the next iPhone” was found is in Redwood City. Redwood City is in San Mateo County.  Should it have been returned by whomsoever found it, to the owner of that bar? Probably so, yes.

So..why did a judge in San Mateo County sign a warrant for a raid-and-seizure at Jason Chen’s house? Did Jason Chen commit a “felony” with that device – as is indicated by the warrant?

The Wikipedia gives an overview of a “felony” as the following:

“Crimes commonly considered to be felonies include, but are not limited to: aggravated assault and/or battery, arson, burglary, illegal drug use/sales, grand theft, robbery, murder, rape, and vandalism  on federal property. Broadly, felonies can be categorized as either violent or non-violent (property and drug) offenses.”

As I understand it, Jason Chen did not steal the device, assault anyone with it, set fire to it or to anything else with it, murder anyone with it or anything else that may seem to fit the ‘felony’ bill.

Yeah, I’m on Team Jason for this one.