“There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.”
– Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com
“There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.”
– Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com
After leaving their customers’ personal information wide open to attack on unsecured servers running ancient software, Sony’s lawyers decided to simply make their customers sign away the right to make claims for damage done by Sony’s negligence. If you don’t want to do so, you must send a “clear statement” about it via postal mail.
So that’s what I’m doing.
September 16, 2011
Sony Network Entertainment, Inc.
6080 Center Drive, 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90045
ATTN: Legal Department/Arbitration
To those who protect themselves far more than they do their customers:
I do not yield, capitulate, surrender, or otherwise stupidly waive my legal right to resolve disputes with any Sony entity through individual or class action litigation. I make no agreement or commitment to needlessly subject myself to the inferior system of arbitration.
Earlier this year, your failure to protect your customers’ personally identifiable information through the most basic of information technology security processes resulted in direct harm to us. You should be working to make sure this never happens again, rather than avoiding legal accountability to your customers for future misdeeds.
Keep your incompetent practices off my fucking legal rights,
Zeke Weeks
Updated – It’s a bad time to be in charge. Lots of major companies have dropped CEOs for unpleasant causes in 2010-11:
Company | Person | Why They’re Gone |
Apple | Steve Jobs | http://zeke.ws/ogcSIO |
BP | Tony Hayward | http://zeke.ws/mUhrNd |
Eric Schmidt | http://zeke.ws/p2N5TL | |
HP | Mark Hurd | http://zeke.ws/pYoID5 |
Léo Apotheker | http://zeke.ws/n3vsbI | |
Nokia | Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | http://zeke.ws/rgtWOI |
T-Mobile USA | Robert Dotson | http://zeke.ws/oeozcx |
Yahoo! | Carol Bartz | http://zeke.ws/rdzRGI |
Very strange to see the “who’s-who” list of tech – Apple, HP, Google, Nokia, Yahoo! – shaking up their leadership in the same short period.
…But then again, I’d probably rather be a fired CEO than one of the heads of state or government who either resigned or lost their posts amidst human rights outcries and widespread economic instability in 2010-11:
Country | Person | Position | Why They’re Gone |
Chile | Michelle Bachelet | President | http://zeke.ws/psUwPU |
Egypt | Hosni Mubarak | President | http://zeke.ws/nuiJ40 |
Ireland | Brian Cowen | Taoiseach | http://zeke.ws/oT607A |
Japan | Naoto Kan | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/pmcECv |
Jordan | Samir Rifai | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/nIW8Bu |
Libya | Muammar Gaddafi | Dictator | http://zeke.ws/qulhTp |
South Korea | Chung Un-chan | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/oodoP1 |
Syria | Muhammad Naji al-Otari | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/qEuFD8 |
Thailand | Abhisit Vejjajiva | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/nUfYnT |
Tunisia | Zine El Abidine Ben Ali | President | http://zeke.ws/oDskWY |
United Kingdom | Gordon Brown | Prime Minister | http://zeke.ws/pu9lyQ |
United States | Nancy Pelosi | Speaker of the House | http://zeke.ws/pHUUQv |
Yemen | Ali Abdullah Saleh | President | http://zeke.ws/pXyBf4 |
This comes as no surprise. From Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law:
Trademark and copyright holders frequently characterize piracy as a legal failure, arguing that tougher laws and increased enforcement are needed to stem infringing activity. But a new global study on piracy, backed by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, comes to a different conclusion. Following several years of independent investigation in six emerging economies, the report concludes that piracy is chiefly a product of a market failure, not a legal one.
Read more about the 400-page report commissioned by the Canadian government at thestar.com .
If it takes the Times $40 million to put a CSS overlay over their text, I have no sympathy for them. The Times’ reporting is unparalleled; their management will be their undoing. Link