Popular tech blog Gizmodo's leak of the new iPhone prototype has garnered the attention of more than just interested Apple fanatics. Last Friday, Gizmodo editor Jason Chen arrived home around 9:45 to find police in his home, removing 4 computers and 2 servers with a search warrant signed by the judge of the Superior Court of San Mateo as their defense. In response, Gawker Chief Operating Officer and legal counsel Gaby Derbyshire claims this search was illegal under a California shield law created especially to protect journalists, and that the police must return Chen's belongings.

What has since erupted across the web and likely in legal courts soon is a debate over the legality of Gizmodo's iPhone scoop, the application of the untested shield law, and, most fundamentally, whether bloggers are considered journalists in the eyes of the law.

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