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Slashback: Epson, AbiWord, Justification
It was the least they could do. Last week, AbiWord's PayPal account for donations was lightened to the tune of several hundred dollars. Now, an anonymous reader writes "According to this posting, PayPal has succumbed to the pressure. They have agreed to reimburse the AbiWord team for the money that was stolen from their account last week. I still want to know how the AbiWord account was broken into..."
Because licenses matter. specht writes "I am a bit surprised that nobody has reported this yet. EPSON KOWA made their scanner and printer software available for downloading again after they had to pull it because of a GPL violation (see the previous Slashdot story). More information about this (and why it had to be removed in the first place) are here . Kudos to EPSON KOWA and EPSON for working with the FSF to resolve these issues."
No, that's "Gorilla marketing." akiaki007 writes "As many might have noticed, Friday most of Manhattan was covered with butterflies. This article on CNN that states that NYC fined MS $50.00 and the cost of cleaning up the static-cling plastic ads. On a side note, most other companies probably would have been fined per ad, though somehow MS got off, pretty much scot-free."
Priceless -- which is nice when you're paying. Digital Soldier writes "HERE is an article from Government Executive Magazine justifying, from a security perspective, the use of open source software in government. In short, the article makes the point that open source software allows security administrators to be pro-active rather than purely reactive in their work. I guess they don't like waiting for service packs."
Lovely spam, lovely spam ah ah ah ah ... ghostrider_one writes "Australian IT is reporting that notorious Australian spammers T3 direct have appealed the recent dismisssal of their lawsuit against the person they blame for being blacklisted in SPEWS."
PayPal is not a bank. It's not run like a bank, it's not regulated like a bank, and deposits are not insured like a bank.
- Have a picture
Should every fine be relative? A homeless man who makes his money by trading in cans earns far less than you do. A 50 dollar fine to him might be equal to a 1500 dollar fine to you. Would you prefer to pay the 1500 dollar fine?
Makes you wonder, why pay for commercials during prime time news, when you can be the news for so much cheaper?
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
what about the countless other people that haven't resolved problems with Paypal? It seems the only way to get a response from them is to have someone post a story on Slashdot so they'll buckle under the pressure :)
How is what Microsoft did in NY different from what IBM did in SF?
Je ne parle pas francais.
Pretty much scot free is about $50, apparently.
Yes, I know Microsoft's butterfly decals are not much different than IBM's Linux campaign, but let's think for a bit here. The stickers that Microsoft used were rather slick on the top, I hear, and putting them on the curbs and sidewalks is like an invitation for hip-breaking.
so even if the logo does not represent Microsoft in its entirety, it it still Microsoft's and Microsoft still chose it. Care to explain where I'm wrong?
... unsatisfying resolutions.
Paypal will resolve a problem with a prominent customer after a big fuss has been made about it. Otherwise, of course, no change.
Epson makes the smallest possible change to a license (not to forbid reverse engineering), so as to use an LGPLed library legally. It looks like Epson tried it on; it didn't work out, but it was worth a try.
Microsoft was almost certain to gain more by the stunt than it would lose in fines. $50 per "decal" would have been cheap, but it wasn't even fined that much.
You can [imprison a corporation], its called an injunction. It freezes them from acting
No. An injunction bans one from doing one particular thing. Prison bans one from doing just about anything. The closest thing to prison for a corporation would probably be suspension of the company's operations for several months.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I don't work for paypal and don't know anyone who does.
1. I've never had a problem.
2. Been a customer "since day one"
3. I've done a few grand through paypal and while they don't have phone support, i've never had an un-answered email request.
I only deal with ebay sellers +5, i only take payments from verified paypal account holders and i keep a seperate checking account established for just linking to such accounts.
Paypal is a godsend for those who push money, goods and materials. I don't treat it like a bank, and i respect it for what is is.
Change your passwords, don't be "gullible" deal with good people.
Common sense people.
$50.00 + cost of removal is NOT the same thing as $50.00. What do you figure the average NYC Public Works crew gets paid per hour, plus cost of gas and vehicle maintenance, overhead in coordinating efforts, any tools necessary to remove decals... that all adds up pretty fast.
MHO. YMMV. Any resemblance between this post and real persons, or reality in general, was accidental.
All you Microsoft-bashers crying about Microsoft getting off "scott-free" should read the article again. They had PERMITS for crying out loud! And the city didn't argue the fact that they had permits, only that the permits were improperly issued. Sounds to me like the CITY made the mistake, and Microsoft shouldn't have been fined at all!
Of course, I'm certainly no Microsoft-lover, but c'mon guys, be honest. If there's ONE thing that Microsoft has consistently done WELL, it's gotta be marketing. We geeks could learn something from them.
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.