One of Apple's arguments in its push to condemn the website Gizmodo and those journalists who helped to leak images and information about the new iPhone was that the unauthorized previews hurt sales of its existing phone model because, getting a taste of the edgy new gadget, people would wait to buy it.

Really? It was worth encouraging police to raid the home of a journalist and taking his computers? Really Apple? So all those lines at Apple stores in the Los Angeles region represented money leaking from Apple's bank account? Really? Were those the people who waited to buy an iPhone and cost the company millions in sales, or were they the ones who saw the leaked photos and, mouths watering, camped out like geeks at a Twilight festival?

We, of course, are arguing the latter.

Apple sales and stock have been strong, and the company surpassed Microsoft as the world's biggest tech company, so we've shed no tears for Steve Jobs over the iPhone leak.

In any case, no amount of corporate profit is worth violating the protections journalists enjoy when gathering information, particularly those covering the identity of sources and the sanctity of writers' notes.

Seeing all those nerds under Apple-provided umbrellas make us think Gizmodo did Apple a big favor.

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