Michael Arrington suffers from the worst possible case of selective memory imaginable. It wasn't that long ago that TC was involved in their own scandal when they gave a kid a Macbook pro in exchange for an article that at least three quarters of the tech community debunked as fud.
Then this happens, and he actually grandstands and says "I would never have done that", and tries to tell us he'd actually be an ethical reporter?
To be fair the kid asked for the laptop without Arringtons knowledge. They fired the offending employee and removed all his material from Techcrunch. They were very transparent about the whole incident
Thank you for the clarification on this.
I stand by my point that Arrington isn't exactly the most scrupulous tech blogger out there either, and this article just reeks of self-importance and conceit.
I find blogs to be more self-aggrandizing than traditional opinion columns. But indeed, I agree that it is unfair to pin general human traits on blogs.
Oh, and if I sound like I'm on a high horse... I would do the same thing that Arringtion does, if only somebody cared what I thought about anything ;)
If I had found the iphone... I would have walked around SFO asking people if they lost an iPhone prototype. Starting on Market Street and working my way down to San Jose.
Being that the iPhone is very popular, lots of people would have wanted to see it so... I would have charged them $5 no wait... $20 each to hang out with the iphone for 1 minute, and $50 each for a Polariod of them and the Prototype. I would have continued this pattern until I:
1.) Talked with everyone in the SFO area
2.) Could not carry anymore money
3.) Ran in to Steve Jobs and returned the lost prototype to it's rightful owner.
Eventually I would have found the owner and could sleep easy at night knowing I did everything I could to return it, In the end I would have made way more money than $5000 and returned the iphone.
I agree that paying for the phone is the one sticky point here. If no money changed hands, this would be a much more solid case to enforce bloggers' and journalists' rights. The money taints things... but I still think this could go either way.
(I would argue that the person that found the phone was an employee that discovered the phone in his normal course of work. Then the money is for "being at work" rather than "selling us stolen goods". It's like escort services -- you pay for the escort service; the sex afterwards is free. Or something.)
Well, sure, but he practiced as a corp/finance lawyer, not a criminal or IP attorney (which seem to be the relevant facets here). And in the OP he says, specifically, "I’m not going to go into the legal issues around this because I’m just not qualified."
Personally I would have bought it, contacted Steve Jobs directly and right away (not called up Apple's support line, who of course cannot help with this issue), given him the phone without any questions or favors asked, and then just taken my chances that he would remember my publication in favorable light somewhere further down the line.
Surely the issue here is that the iPhone was lost property, and knowing full-well who the owners were (and who to give it back to) both parties - the guy in the bar and the Gizmondo editor - struck a deal for someone's lost phone.
Here in the UK, at least, it's an offense to knowingly sell-on lost property. Arrington seems to gloss over this and is only looking at it for scoop value. Details of an iPhone 4G prototype isn't information that could be argued needs to be exposed to the public. That's not journalism.
> Apple’s complaint will be that information about the phone leaked early, giving competitors a head start on copying the features. That’s a reasonable complaint
Really? I'm fairly sure there was nothing particularly interesting in the leak other than the leak itself. Res improvements and a front facing cameras? Yawn.
After the leak, 42% of Mashable readers preferred an HTC Incredible over the unreleased iPhone.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 69.3 ms ] threadThen this happens, and he actually grandstands and says "I would never have done that", and tries to tell us he'd actually be an ethical reporter?
And the Oscar goes to...
Whoa, TechCrunch is a blog?
Oh, and if I sound like I'm on a high horse... I would do the same thing that Arringtion does, if only somebody cared what I thought about anything ;)
However, despite my vague dislike of Arrington I believe he wouldn't have actually paid for it.
I disapprove of his conceit in posting this though...
Being that the iPhone is very popular, lots of people would have wanted to see it so... I would have charged them $5 no wait... $20 each to hang out with the iphone for 1 minute, and $50 each for a Polariod of them and the Prototype. I would have continued this pattern until I:
1.) Talked with everyone in the SFO area 2.) Could not carry anymore money 3.) Ran in to Steve Jobs and returned the lost prototype to it's rightful owner.
Eventually I would have found the owner and could sleep easy at night knowing I did everything I could to return it, In the end I would have made way more money than $5000 and returned the iphone.
(I would argue that the person that found the phone was an employee that discovered the phone in his normal course of work. Then the money is for "being at work" rather than "selling us stolen goods". It's like escort services -- you pay for the escort service; the sex afterwards is free. Or something.)
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/michael-arrington
If Arrington wanted to leave the description "brief" he wouldn't have needed a parenthetical explanation.
Hypocrisy is lovely.
Here in the UK, at least, it's an offense to knowingly sell-on lost property. Arrington seems to gloss over this and is only looking at it for scoop value. Details of an iPhone 4G prototype isn't information that could be argued needs to be exposed to the public. That's not journalism.
Really? I'm fairly sure there was nothing particularly interesting in the leak other than the leak itself. Res improvements and a front facing cameras? Yawn.
After the leak, 42% of Mashable readers preferred an HTC Incredible over the unreleased iPhone.