The owner called the bar repeatedly, checking to see whether or not anyone had turned it in.

The "finder" behaved like an ass by A) not turning the phone over to the bartender and B) not attempting to get in touch with the guy who's name he saw on facebook, and C) attempting to sell to mulitple media sources (Engadget, Wired, at least, before settling on Gizmodo.)

If it didn't start as a theft, it quickly got shady looking.

Gizmodo acted like asses by publishing the name of the engineer who "lost" the device. One could argue that they shouldn't have bought the phone, but I'm up in the air on that one.

Apple is attempting to make it uncomfortable for Gizmodo to (hopefully) make other companies think twice about doing what Gizmodo did (purchasing and publishing.) Given what both parties did above, it's hard for me to feel sad for the "finder" and Gizmodo (and by proxy, their editor.)

Personal example - I was at Disney a couple weeks ago. I was picking up some drinks at a poolside bar, and while I was waiting for the bartender to complete my order, I found a credit card on the bar. The bar surface was wildly multicolor, so it kind of blended right in. I could've kept the credit card. I instead gave it to the bartender.

The guy should've handed the phone to the bartender. When the true owner called later that evening, he would've had his property back. End of story.