Tag: business

Tech

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“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

Tech

I’m calling PSN’s bluff

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

Ail to the Chief: 20 CEOs and State Heads Gone in 2010-11

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
Google 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
I find this self-selected list pretty staggering as-is. Feel free to let me know if I missed anyone important…
Tech

Music, movie, and software piracy is a market failure, not a legal one

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 .