The Blog-Ethicist: Have You Seen My iPhone?
After a little futzing, you realize that the iPhone 3GS that someone left next to you in a bar is actually a disguised prototype of the next iPhone (front-facing camera and all). Is it ethical for you to sell the phone to a crappy tech blog? And, if a crappy tech blog chooses to buy the phone, are they ethically obligated to disclose the price and details of the purchase?
Labels: Mark
posted by M S Martinez at 4/20/2010 07:30:00 AM
15 Comments:
The editors of that crappy tech blog did about what I would expect them to do, EXCEPT they decided to be real scumbags and print the name of the Apple employee who lost the phone. Keeping it classy.
The person who "found" the phone deserves whatever legal action comes his/her way. "I was going to contact the owner of the phone, but I decided to wait until the next day." Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
according to the crappy tech blog, the finder did try to tell apple he had the phone, and they bricked the phone so he couldn't contact the owner directly. i think the guy who found it is fine.
but yeah crappy tech blog should probably tell us what they gave the guy.
wait, logan when would you expect the finder of the phone to contact the owner?
I'm with Logan. I have to believe that even if you forgot the name of the engineer that owned the phone (which the finder obviously didn't since the Gawker scumbags were able to provide that detail too), you could easily return the phone directly to Apple and let them take care of it.
Especially since the finder could tell it was a prototype of an unreleased phone.
i guess you're right, the ethical thing to do probably would actually have been to just leave it with the bartender.
and, according to the finder's story he didn't realize it was a prototype until the next day, so there was no reason to be protective of it.
but if i found a new iphone i'm not sure what i would do with it. i know what someone SHOULD do with it, but i got some student loans that could use paying off, and apple's iron fist has always kinda pissed me off anyway.
Brad, I think you have some of the details mixed-up, which isn't surprising, because that crappy tech blog is trying to write everything in the passive voice. "The phone found its way to us."
According to the "story," the finder waited around the bar for the Apple employee to return. He never did. So he snooped around the phone, found his name on Facebook, and yet did nothing. He could have left a message on his Facebook account or called some of his contacts. Instead he decided to sleep on it. You got to at least make some sort of contact that night so the dude is sweating bullets the next morning.
The phone was only bricked the next morning when Apple discovered the phone had been stolen. Apple probably should have at least made contact with the finder first, but I can see why they went with the nuclear option.
And the whole contacting Apple alibi is so bogus. How about trying to contact the actual owner of the phone whose name you saw! That crappy tech site apparently had no problem tracking him down.
And remember, this bar is in Silicon Valley. The finder knew exactly what he was selling.
Which, according to California law, is a crime.
Brad, sorry that post came after you new one.
I guarantee that had he simply e-mailed Steve Jobs, he would have been rewarded with some lucrative swag.
Or he could have simply contacted the owner. Instead he may have just ruined that poor Apple employee's life for $5000.
true, facebook or email would have been a good choice.
but you don't just start calling the guy's contacts in the wee hours.
if dude only got $5000 for it he got ripped off.
Better ethical question:
If I find this whole debacle (the outing) to be grotesque, should I make an active effort to never go to that crappy tech blog again?
Yes. Of course, that's coming from someone who refuses to go to any Gawker site. (I've made an exception for Kotaku recently. But only because they hired Stephen Totilo. He actually has journalistic integrity.)
Kotaku has a real creep undercurrent.
I only get my game updates from print magazines. ::nerd smiley::
Best solution when discovering a lost phone at a bar:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/why-apple-could-sue-gawker-over-lost-iphone-story/19447570/
Tough to prove damages in this case, I think one could make a reasonable argument that this whole series of events has been good for apple. they could maybe get the estimated profits from gizmodo running the story, but damages, i dunno.
I am tempted to agree with you Brad, but I just read that the iPhone now accounts for over 40% of Apple's revenue.
Although the extra publicity doesn't hurt Apple, I think they were trying to keep the tech specs under tight control so rivals were left in the dark.
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