(Photo: Mac Observer)

There's been a lot of news recently about Apple product thieves who are rather careless when it comes to their stealing tactics. If you're going to steal an iPad, the first thing you want to do is probably disable iCloud, lest all your pictures get sent to the original owner. The second thing you want to do is to definitely not text the owner gloating about the fact that you stole their iPad.

 The Arizona Republic reports that after having a fight with his girlfriend, Jonathan Matthew Spriggs left her house with her iPad in tow, and texted her that they were breaking up. He also couldn't help himself from bragging that he'd taken her iPad as relationship collateral: "Thanks for the iPad," he texted. We can picture his smirk now.

Unfortunately for Mr. Spriggs, his girlfriend didn't find his 'tude very amusing, and reported her iPad stolen to the police. When the cops contacted him, he claimed he just took the iPad temporarily and was planning on returning it anyway.

SMH, folks. SMH.

Just take whatever you want, okay? (Photo: flickr.com/wstryder)

The NYPD warned us that our precious iPhones were in danger, and they're quickly being proven right in the most alarming manner possible. The Daily News reports that a man seems to be jacking Apple devices in the Bronx--at hypodermic-needle-point.

This isn't even the first hypodermic needle-related crime of the week. Yesterday a bus driver got stabbed by a passenger with one. This of course poses the question of what is wrong with people?

The Daily News says the biohazardous offender has "accosted eight Bronx victims since mid-August, stealing iPhones and other electronic gadget, police say." The neighbors sound worried, because duh: 

St. Raymond School is also nearby, and crossing guard Maria Oliveras said she is worried about the schoolchildren.

“It’s spooky,” Oliveras said. “I tell the kids all the time to put your phones away.”

This is one of the few cases where we just wouldn't even bother with Find My Phone, lest it turn into Find Out My Horrible New Blood-Borne Disorder.

Apple iPhone 5. (Photo: twitter.com/DiarioLaPrensa)

The New York Police Department has good reason to be concerned about consumers' Apple products: theft of Apple hardware has risen 40 percent in the last year. Compare that to an overall four percent rise in crime and you have what almost sounds like a crime wave focused on iPods, iPhones and iPads.

Plenty of iThefts occur in the street, but NBC New York reports your beloved cuddle phone is in even more danger on the subway:

The problem is especially severe underground. As a result, the NYPD has been working with the MTA to hide decoy cops on trains and monitoring cameras across the subway system.

According to the NBC affiliate, the high resale value of Apple products makes "anyone holding an iPhone" a potential target.

Until the advent of the iPhone 8 with an embedded industrial laser or hidden switchblade, this may continue to be a problem.

Another dissatisfied customer.

If you answered 'Fight crime and intimidate thieves into the idea that they will inevitably be caught,' you're wrong.

If you answered 'Entrap low-wage workers as they purchase other people's stolen gear even though they know it's stolen,' you're right.

Via the New York Post, of course:

Undercover NYPD officers walked into stores in all five boroughs and offered merchants the electronics – asking $50 to $200 for iPhone 4s and iPad 2s - clearly stating that the popular gadgets were stolen. The stings began Tuesday and continued through today, and followed decoy operations in the subways to catch the thieves that steal electronics from straphangers. Most of the stings yielded one arrest, though at some locations two merchants were arrested and one location near 178th Street and Fort Washington Avenue netted six people.

For the record, as you could imagine, these aren't exactly high-income neighborhoods. Regardless, the entire tactic seems a little...exploitative? Entrapment-happy? Then again, having your iPhone stolen sucks. So there's that.

New York City is generally shady on the whole, is the point.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

image by dettmer otto via the economist

The Economist is well and known and well regarded for its intellectual and stridently capitalist takes on everything from healthcare to governance. But when considering the new Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that is currently being debated by Congress, the magazine's editors took the unusual stance of siding against America's big entertainment industries.

"Compared with other countries’ anti-piracy laws, SOPA is indeed draconian," they wrote. It's not that international, online piracy isn't a serious problem. But targeting the companies like AT&T and Google which provide the infrastructure for web service and search is far more damaging to consumers and the internet economy than the problem demands. 

The Economist points to methods that have worked in Europe and Asia, the "graduated response" laws, which ask ISPs to shut off service to individual users who are downloading illegal files. Consumers get two warnings first. In South Korea, most consumers stopped downloading pirated files after the warnings.

As the folks at BitTorrent recently pointed out, even if all the users currently downloading files through Bit Torrent sites switched over to paid streaming services like NetFlix, it wouldn't add up to the yearly budget of the MPAA, the industry's leading crusader against online piracy.

And yet independent artists are finding new ways to thrive. Kickstarter is on pace to pass the annual endowment for the arts in terms of the capital they raise for creative projects. The Economist takes a dour view of attempts to regulate piracy out of existence. "Neither piracy laws nor newfangled ideas offer creative types a reliable path to prosperity. Services that provide legal music over the internet pay out little in royalties. Only the biggest bands really do well out of touring—and to become big they need to sell albums, says Mr Mensch. No law can do much about that."

What these industries need is increased investment in new legal technologies that will encourage consumers to pay for their music, movies and television to be delivered in fast, flexible ways that truly satisfy their current digital lifestyle.