Gizmodo’s Jason Chen has computers seized over alleged iPhone 4G ‘theft’

Gizmodo.com, the technology blog, said law enforcement officials seized computers from the home of Jason Chen, a staff editor who wrote about a prototype for an Apple Inc. iPhone that had been left behind in a bar.

“Last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered editor Jason Chen’s home without him present, seizing four computers and two servers,” according to a statement on Gizmodo’s site, which is owned by Gawker Media.

Gawker Chief Operating Officer Gaby Darbyshire asked the police today to return Chen’s property, citing a law that protects online journalists from having their newsroom equipment seized. The seizure may reignite debate over whether bloggers should be accorded the same status as reporters who work for traditional news outlets.

“Under both state and federal law, a search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist,” Darbyshire wrote in a letter posted at Gawker’s Web site. “We expect the immediate return of the materials you confiscated from Mr. Chen.”

Gizmodo said it paid $5,000 to obtain the device after it was left at a Redwood City, California, bar by an Apple engineer identified as Gray Powell. A patron who found the device on a stool and realized it was an unreleased iPhone, tried to contact Apple to return it, Gizmodo said, citing an interview with the unidentified finder.

Gizmodo gave the phone to Apple on April 19 after receiving a letter from Bruce Sewell, the company’s general counsel, asking for the return of a “device that belongs to Apple.”

‘Are Bloggers Journalists?’

Nick Denton, founder and president of Gawker, said in an e- mail that the question boils down to whether Chen is considered a journalist. “Are bloggers journalists? I guess we’ll find out.”

REACT, a Silicon Valley technology crime task force, is continuing with the investigation, said Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, which has jurisdiction over Redwood City, about 25 miles south of San Francisco. He declined to say who or what initiated the investigation.

“What Gizmodo is saying has been addressed to us and is being looked at by us and the prosecutor assigned to the investigation,” Wagstaffe said in an interview today. “When and if the investigative team submits a case to us, I don’t know if they will or when. At this point, we are just investigating, no different than any other incident that is reported to us.”

The investigation is being led by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department detectives assigned to REACT, an independent law enforcement agency.

Wagstaffe said that there have been allegations that the probe involves violations of California theft laws. The allegations of theft involve the person who found the phone, Wagstaffe said, adding he’s “not suggesting anything as to anyone else.”

Chen described the seizure in a six-paragraph letter posted on Gizmodo, which also published the search warrant inventory provided by REACT.