I was not thinking of a coerced reward, but one freely given by a grateful Apple.

My take on it is if he intended on trying to make a buck on it, he went about it in completely the wrong way, and there was plenty of money to be had, legally, if he'd have thought about what he was doing.

1) take extensive pictures of the phone, the interface, everything all the magazines want to see. Hours of video using it if you can. Go overboard. Make sure you do this as fast as possible and certainly before step 2. It may even get disabled before you get much from it.

2) call apple and tell them to send someone to pick it up. Be persistent. Don't stop until you find someone that understands what you have and how important it is for apple to come and get it. Someone WILL show up at your door eventually. Make NO indication you are expecting ANYTHING in exchange for the phone.

3) when the person picks it up, hand it over instantly. They WILL have an NDA with them that they are hoping you will just sign without question. NOW is the time to be specific about what information you have, who you're sure is interested in it, and discussing the terms of your signing that NDA.

I'm no lawyer, but this appears to be fairly bulletproof from a legal standpoint. Any attempt to sell it or even the vaguest suggestion that you are expecting a reward or finder's fee of any kind is setting you up for trouble. But all that information in your head and on your camera and VCR, that's entirely your property, obtained legally, and most certainly the exclusive rights for which are negotiable.

At the VERY LEAST he should have come away with a computer or two in exchange for handing over/destroying the materials and signing the NDA. And apple would have been quite satsfied with this arrangement I'm sure.

Some will say I'm advocating taking advantage of the situation. I am. Apple (via employee) screwed up big time. This is an incredibly small price to pay for such a mistake, and the finder is completely entitled to some compensation for doing the right thing. For the finder I'd call it a windfall, no different than seeing a $20 bill blow by you on the street.

It's also entirely possible if he managed to reach the correct person at apple, whoever showed up at his door would be bearing gifts, realizing the smoothest way to insure silence (and an NDA signature) is, well, bribery.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department