According to court documents, the search warrant was dropped on Thursday after Gizmodo editor Jason Chen agreed to submit information kept in several electronic devices seized from his house in April.
Authorities sought the information as part of an investigation to determine if a crime was committed when Gizmodo purchased the phone - a prototype for the iPhone 4 - from Brian Hogan, who found the device after an Apple engineer left it behind in a Redwood City bar.
The search warrant drew heat from critics who argued it violated state shield law provisions that protect journalists from having to surrender their notes to authorities.
"Mr. Chen's attorney came to us with the idea that if we agreed to withdraw the search warrant, they would agree to grant us access to the information" authorities were seeking, said San Mateo County's chief deputy district attorney, Steve Wagstaffe. "That means the First Amendment issue is no longer an issue because it becomes information voluntarily submitted by Mr. Chen."
However, authorities still could file criminal charges against Gizmodo, Chen or Hogan.
"Their hope is to reset the investigation to remove the problem of the illegal search from the equation," said Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But no one has said that the authorities have agreed not to charge (any of the parties involved) with any crimes. The same possibilities before this deal are there."
As of Saturday, prosecutors had not filed a complaint against anyone in the case. Chen's attorney, Tom Nolan, said he feels confident the investigation would conclude that his client did not engage in any criminal behavior.
Officers with the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, a state high-tech crime task force, served the search warrant a few days later and seized several electronic devices and other belongings from Chen's Fremont home after the revealtion of iPhone 4 without being official launched.
Jobs briefly alluded to the Gizmodo incident in a news conference Friday held to address the inconsistent performance of the new iPhone's antenna: "You know, sometimes websites buy stolen prototypes and put them on the Web. And we don't like that."
- sfgate.com
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