Gizmodo’s publisher Nick Denton is not likely to back down to Apple or the police, says a publishing industry executive who has followed Gawker closely for years.
Denton, who owns Gizmodo’s parent company, Gawker Media, relishes a fight in the courts, says the executive, who asked not be named.
On Friday, Silicon Valley police investigating iPhonegate raided the home of Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who detailed the iPhone 4G prototype for the site.
It appears police are searching for the identity of the person who found Apple’s iPhone prototype in a bar and sold it to Gizmodo for $5,000.
Although police seized Chen’s computers and other property, including mobile phones and external drives, they did not arrest nor detail him. However, Chen is described as a “suspect” and “defendant” in court papers.
Gawker argues that the search was illegal because Chen is protected by California shield laws, which prevent authorities from searching reporter’s belongings in search of suspects. Section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code states that search warrants can’t be issued to publishers, editors or reporters (in print or electronic media) in relation to stories they were working on or their sources.
“We raised our objections over the weekend and met in person with the authorities today,” Gawker’s general counsel and COO, Gaby Darbyshire, Tweeted on Monday. “They’re reviewing the shield law issue.”
Denton has a history of digging in and fighting:
- Denton paid for the McSteamy sex video and is preparing for a court fight. In 2009, Denton paid “big money” for a threesome sex video featuring “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane; his wife, Rebecca Gayheart; and former beauty queen Kari Ann Peniche. Dane and his wife sued. Gawker is putting up a vigorous defense, the publishing executive says.
- The Dell/Consumerist exchange. A Dell lawyer threatened Gawker’s Consumerist blog for running insider information from a former sales manager. Gawker COO Darbyshire responded to Dell with a sharply-worded refusal, and Dell backed down.
The publishing executive says Apple may be opening a can of worms by targeting Gizmodo. In his opinion, Gizmodo is in a position to become a cause célèbre if they win and strengthen the case law. And even Gizmodo loses the legal case, it will get credit for fighting the case in the first place.
He says Denton would like nothing better.
Denton didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
