The man who singlehandedly started a chain of events that eventually
resulted in a criminal investigation of Gizmodo editors says he's sorry
about the mess he helped create.
21-year-old Brian Hogan, who found the prototype iPhone at a Silicon
Valley beer garden, claims he tried to return the iPhone to its
rightful owner, but that nobody claimed it. His lawyers claim he
regrets not doing more to return the phone and argue that he is a nice
young man that any parent would be proud of, and we see no reason to
disagree.
Hogan's lawyer Jeffrey Bornstein claims Gizmodo mislead his client.
“Even though he did obtain some compensation from Gizmodo, Brian
thought that it was so that they could review the phone. Brian believed
and Gizmodo emphasized to him that there was nothing wrong in sharing
the phone with the tech press,” said Bornstein.
Bornstein went on to say that Hogan is involved in a number of
humanitarian actions. Apparently he works as a part time swimming
instructor at a church community center, he teaches English to Chinese
students and he volunteered to teach kids in a Chinese orphanage and
plant a friendship garden in Vietnam. Sounds like a great guy, right?
However, we can't but wonder why he didn't contact Apple when he
realized he was in possession of a prototype iPhone. It's not that we
believe he did anything wrong in selling it to Gizmodo, hell no, but we think
Apple would have paid much more than $5,000 to get its precious toy back and get an NDA signed by Hogan. Taking money from
Apple is a service to humanity, much like helping Chinese orphans and
planting trees in Vietnam, perhaps even better in the eyes of the Almighty.
More
here.