The New York Times reported that Apple’s case against Gawker Media’s Gizmodo is getting ugly.  Gizmodo published images of an upcoming iPhone after paying $5000 to a person who claimed to have “found the phone at a bar in California.”

Hmmm … was Brookie in San Mateo around then?  Another significant question, posed by Nick Denton, founder and president of Gawker Media, is, “Are bloggers journalists?  I guess we’ll find out.”
The outcome of this case will set precedent here in California, establishing whether bloggers may publish or post content that has been unlawfully obtained.  In general, journalists may publish such material, as long as they were not involved with the original theft or otherwise unlawful procurement—known in California as “shield laws.”  “Of all places,” the Times article further quoted Sam Bayard, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, “California is probably the most clear that what Gizmodo does and what [blogger] Jason Chen does is journalism.”
Nevertheless, the crux of the case boils down to whether Apple can prove that Gizmodo participated in or facilitated the phone’s theft.  StickyDrama, in case you were wondering, is rooting for Gawker on this one.  Duh.

22 COMMENTS

  1. There’s a thin line between bloggers and journalists people, a thin one but a line all the same.

  2. No I do not believe that every dipshit with a computer out there calling themselves a blogger is a journalist, that would be crass. However, Its about time to dust off the fine line of where bloggers rights start and stop and I think we will find that they themselves AS BLOGGERS (and not journalists) have many rights that actual journalists have.

  3. Anyway… I just noticed that in the Amor phonecall to gonzo she has to repeat STICKYDRAMA DOT COM to him about 400 times while he pretends really BADLY that he never heard of it and wasn’t the one who posted the original porn post to mydrama!

  4. Also, the hyperbolic implication embedded in your comment at 2:35 is fucking delusional.

  5. No. Bloggers are not journalists, regardless of how far you attempt to stretch the boundaries of what constitutes a journalist. Fucktards like you are the prime reason why they are not journalists; bloggers are not subject to high standards, formal qualifications, or exceptional regulation. Also, you cannot even attempt impose universal laws on a global society.
    Quite simply, any moron can be a “blogger.” The same cannot be said of traditional journalism, at least as much as it’s acknowledged.

  6. Well we all know most website writers are worthless hacks, but from a legal point of view they need to have the same protection.

  7. bloggers are not journalists. that’s a total slap to the face to actual people that worked their asses off in school and work for an actual publication.
    its like asking, if a person who posts regularly on a medical forum an actual doctor?

  8. Not least because of the metric shit-ton of drugs they’d find if they raided Stickyhouse, rite? 😉

  9. ^Idiot. If Gawker wins, that essentially establishes precedent for this site to publish content that has unlawfully been obtained—such as through hacking or other illicit means—without any legal repercussions. This case is of interest to all bloggers, but in particular to litigation-prone tabloids like mine.

  10. Apple is so fucking full of themselves. I was really planning on getting an iPhone until this happened… now I just think they’re bitches and I don’t want to give them any business.
    Props to sticky for venturing outside the Amor/Keekz/One-Ball triage.

  11. ^ Cos you need to test it in a real cellphone network environment and how it functions in real world use, etc.

  12. If apple is so concerned about loss of their prototypes, then why are they allowed to leave the building. It’s not like the new iphone will be having anything all that groundbreaking anyway, but I guess this story is some good free advertising for the upcoming phone.
    I would just as soon believe that phone was left there on purpose just to create a buzz story on the blogs about it. It’s JUST as possible as it being ‘accidently’ left there.
    all in all, who cares. 🙂

  13. If I was Chen/someone else in the frame I’d be more worried about being personally sued for A BILLION DOLLARS by Apple, who are evil.

  14. … well unless it goes to the supreme court and Alito and Roberts have anything to do with it…… Being that they side with corporate powers every time, further elevating the powerful over the weak… the antithesis of their true purpose.

  15. I’m so conflicted over this one because I hate Apple and I hate Gizmodo.
    I do think it’s pretty lulz that they thought they could take apart some lost phone, prototype or not.

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