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SunnComm - Bomb or DRM Success Story?
pacopico writes "The Register has one of best tech feature stories done in a long time on SunnComm - the infamous Shift key problem DRM makers. The story charts the awesome path SunnComm took from being an Elvis impersonator company eventually to creating CD protection technology almost out of thin air. Great read!"
You gave us how much money to make a DRM technology that's able to be over-ridden with a single key press?
Well thank ya, thank ya very much
Sincerely,
SunnComm
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, SUNNCOMM HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
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You've got to give them props for a nice, deceptive/informative error page though!
Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting
Of Parasites taken over by Parasites- and searching for a business plan *after* creating the business and selling stock. Amazing that they were allowed to survive at all.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
for getting them to respond to this. . .
.com of technology type investing.
what's scary though is that it's things like this that scare ppl from any sort of
As a shareholder, I'd be mad too to find out you can defeat the copy protection by holding down the shift key. That's ABSURD!
Does it come with a shift-key?
This sig is a test. If this had been an actual sig, you would be reading something quite a bit wittier than this now.
It's amazing how apt Leia's "the more you tighten your grip..." prediction is coming true for DRM: That DRM systems don't work.
Jacobs' theory that the complaining Internet posters are motivated by making money from shorting SunnComm's stock is nonsense - it's very difficult to sell "short" (i.e. bet that a share goes down) when the share is obscure and rarely traded.
A professional trader *might* be able to find someone willing to go "long" (take the other side of the bet) but it's pretty unlikely. Joe Public has no chance.
Elvis has left the building!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This business doesn't seem to have any idea as to what it really wants to do. The CEO seems like the type of person that could be easily influenced by his surroundings.
*CEO walking down street*
"Hmm... I think I'll have a hot dog. Aren't they also called tube steaks? Steak! Maybe I'll run a steak restaurant. I'll need meat. But I need a butcher to cut it. Butcher shop..."
This guy just doesn't have any focus. If he just stuck to one plan and worked at it, he'd actually have a legitimate business rather than a mirage.
How on earth does a business that lives off shams stay afloat for so long?!?
Live forever, or die trying.
The story charts the awesome path SunnComm took from being an Elvis impersonator company
Okay, stop right there. -10 points for using 'awesome' and 'Elvis impersonator' in the same sentence.
Re: awesome: I do not think it means what you think it means.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Did anyone else get the picture of a bunch of elvis impersonators standing around a board room coming up with the idea of shift key drm.
(Speaking of failed oil and gas exploration company Fan Energy (Quiet Tiger) - "They had no prospects before."
On a more serious note, I'd say this story tells a lot about how much the board of a failing company can get away with in the interests of turning a profit. One of the many good reasons for becoming a Public company is to give greater oversight to the public over the company's actions in exchange for an influx of capital. It appears that Desert Wind/sunnComm came charging in with a lot of glitz (perhaps picked up in Vegas?) and very little substance, and the shareholders were completely suckered.
I have considerable familiarity with the Whitby, Yorks location chosen by Dark Noise - I lived there for a while. It's a tiny backwater made famous by fishing, an ancient abbey, dracula and tourism..not somewhere likely to be host to an up-and-coming technology company.
the register's interview seems to show Jacobs as an honest guy.. but someone's got to be held responsible for all this!
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
given that I'm listening to a mp3 rip of Velvet Revolver right now...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
CD protection technology almost out of thin air...
From whom does this "protection" "protect" the CD?
And they are not happy.
I don't know what American libel laws are like, but here in Britain, what was said about the Register's journalistic practices would, if unprovable, cause SunnComm some trouble...
'Its funny. No one in the legitimate news community would touch the OurStreet dirt package with a 10-foot pole. Theyve been trying to find such a dupe for a year. Our Oregon friend from OurStreet must be jumping up and down with glee that finally he found his "patsy."'
' Mr. Vance proceeded to mischaracterize the source purposely in the article even after being told otherwise. In other words, Mr. Vance purposely made a decision to carry the water for OurStreet.Com even after knowing of the possibility that his source had lied to him about his standing.'
'he didnt bother to fact-check his single main source'
Needless to say, from a regular reader of the Register's perspective, these allegations seem extreme. However, I must say, the SunnComm director is very reassuring: "SunnComm is NOT a get rich quick scheme" - a Nigerian friend of mine told me the same thing the other week.
I have yet to find any DRM which (even on Windows!) can circumvent the following:
1. Turn off auto-run on all CD drives.
2. While the computer is off, put in a CD in the drive.
3. Upon boot, retrieve the music you paid for using a program like EAC.
Most DRM relies on #1 to begin with.
Now once Longhorn comes about, that's a different story (for Windows users).
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
After reading the related article "SunnComm CEO demands to be called a laughing stock", I'd have told the caller from the Register to go fuck themselves.
Maybe they should merge with SCO ...
Companies that seem to us totally mismanaged, drowning in red, and should have failed years ago stay afloat alot of times because no one's gotten around to sink them.
It's much like a small clothing retailer I worked briefly at in NYC 3 years ago, the turnover was horrible, unsellable inventory was piling up, collections groups had been holding shipments constantly until the outstanding balances are paid, the company credibility was so bad that we'd have to fax copies of the checks we write at the end of the week (for invoices 3-6 months past due) to prove we've written the checks (that we don't mail for a few days after anyways). Heck, the ultilities didn't get paid until they threatened (as in guy with cutters literally stands next to the wires) to disconnect us.
By all reasonings of business, accounting, and logic, we're looking at a dead turkey here. However, it's still in business to this day, still generating revenue (not really profit). My firm belief is that it'd take a big claims lawsuit from a bunch of creditors to force this company into bankruptcy. And until that day comes, it'll still flounder around.
I'm such a gaming nerd. The first thing I thought when I read that was "Dice Roll Modifier?"
That article in no way shows Suncomm to be a success at anything but pumping its stock prices. Their parent company was actually BANNED from selling stock by the SEC, so they bought up a company that sells floppy disks (in 2001!), except the company doesn't ACTUALLY sell floppy disks, they just have all the equipment, so they could if they wanted to. They were, however publicly traded, yadda yadda.
It's a big joke. Think the poster may have gotten a bit overzealous.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
But what I want to know is how does everyone get paid, how do the bills get paid, where does revenue come in? Lastly, why aren't creditors knocking down your door with a ram?
:)
If you can answer those questions, we should get together and talk some business.
Live forever, or die trying.
"Hmm... I think I'll have a hot dog. Aren't they also called tube steaks? Steak! Maybe I'll run a steak restaurant. I'll need meat. But I need a butcher to cut it. Butcher shop..."
Yeah. I once had a dog that seemed to think a lot like that. This CEO doesn't wag his tail when you pet him, does he?
I have seen a lot of this in the software industry. From Fortune 500 to small start-ups. After a while I have to wonder if a good chunk of the industry is just a pyramid scam.
I have tried the shift key fix on the Christopher Lawrence cd, it stops the autoplay which doesn't install the program, but you still can't copy the cd.
stop bashing Elvis impersonators. At least they don't snoop and gum up media technology usage.
Table-ized A.I.
It was in Flash so I couldn't copy/paste the text or even the graphic. The next time I entered, to read it closer, it never appeared, so obviously they're setting a cookie. I'm too lazy to delete the cookie, and figure out a quick way of copy/pasting the text for review here. Anyone have any bright ideas? (Maybe holding down the shift-key? :)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
A typical comment on reverse mergers: "It's a perfect setup for a 'pump and dump' stock scam. Take a stock that has been trading for pennies, merge it into a business that has at least the facade of respectability and a presence in a market that is perceived as hot, hype like hell, sell off as many of your shares as possible, and make a run for the border before the price drops like a rock. There have been enough of these to give the whole approach a dubious aura."
A reverse merger, unlike an initial public offering, doesn't raise any money for the company. It costs money, and at the end, you have a publicly traded stock nobody cares about. Which you then have to hype. So they are an inherently suspicious transaction.
Here's an example of a reverse merger involving a company claiming to be engaged in gold mining, biotech, and casino gambling. Reverse mergers tend to be at that level of flakeyness.
I few years ago I wouldn't have believed it. But the megaeurocorp that bought out my past employer has made me change my mind. I swear they're literally in the business of being in business. We could be selling chewing gum and they would be just as happy.
But this isn't "business" as a group that's doing this. Only corporate business. Private businesses aren't. When you product isn't a stock price, what you do product has much higher quality.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Um...didn't Harvey Keitel come into Pulp Fiction to hide the bodies and help the gangsters get away with the loot?
Yes, but the article is 5 pages long. Do you really expect the average slashdotter to get through the first 2 paragraphs.
Sort of like SCO then.
What would have happened to Scratch music if LPs at the time that it was popular had any DRM on them?
What other kind of Art Genre was lost in the void because of MacroVision, DVDcss and other DRMs?
DRMs are false solutions to false problems and it should be illegal to use it over any cultural content.
Wouldn't the success of DRM be a bomb or would bombs be necessary in the advent of successful DRM?
Why bother.
Ewww! Don't touch that CEO, you don't know where he's been!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
"next, big DRM success", another BS moneyriser talking big BS about creating copyright protection on media that can't be protected.
if you create a CD that should play in a normal CD player, you can't protect it from being copied.
if a normal cd drive can read it, then a linux box can read it per se, one user can rip the album on his damn good lookin debian box and share it out on gnutella or bittorrent. after 30 days the file has been multiplying like bacteria and there is no stopping it.
when will people finally realize that it's just an endless waste of money trying to create a "protection system that doesn't really work unless applied on a windows machine and the shift key isn't held down"..........
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
This is really an article about corporate predators and the nature of Business As Usual (TM).
WHINE ALERT!!!!
And what would you have done in his place? Folded the company?
What many of the posters on this thread fail to realize is that this guy, and thousands of CEOs like him, have a FIDUCIARY responsibility to their shareholders to return value. That is how capital markets work. If they fail to do their jobs, they will be terminated. If they are negligent in carrying out their duties, they will be sued.
These people are tasked with doing everything within the bounds of the law to return value to the shareholder.
Your 401K wouldn't be worth a dime if it weren't for them.
Unfortunately, not all of them operate above the law. That's what makes them such easy targets for anti-capitalists.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
If they're anything like a small retail shop I once tried to collect from, it's because they're a corporation. Get a judgement against the proprietary and he shifts his assets to the corporation. Get a judgement against the corporation and the proprietary gets a huge bonus. If you're only trying to collect a few thousand, it's not worth taking it to a higher court to stop the shell game. You eventually settle for fifty cents on the dollar, close the books, and place them on your blacklist. In the meantime they've found another supplier.
I've personally collected judgements against a state government, but never once have I ever collected against a corporation. I'm no longer in business, but if I were my policy would be cash up front for corporations.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Well it breaks down like this for my store example, milelage may vary depending on industry and size.
The stores do generate revenue through selling inventory. It's not clearing the shelves, but every day a certain amount of goods are sold, and the money first goes to the employee salaries, 'cause without them we might as well pack up now.
Now if you have no product, you'd have to get outside investment (read: suckers) to keep you afloat. Or you buy/sell parts of businesses.
The really big reason why the creditors don't ram your door down probably comes down to the managers negotiation skills, and power relationships.
The owner/manager I worked for had a heck of a sharp tongue and could deal with all sorts of angry collections people, if he decided to actually take their calls through the secretary filter. Small suppliers need every account they can get and he really takes advantage of their lack of power
Okay fine, if you want, you can bring in the lawyers. But that'll take months to go through the courts, and alot of times the wholesaler just doesn't want to bother and will settle for a fraction of the bill. The business has had time to save up some cash to pay off a settlement so it's clear then.
Now, if you're a large important supplier with hot products, say, Nike, you'll always get paid. Power, again.
This is probably why collection agencies are actually very useful to wholesalers, having 20 suppliers bound to not ship things to you if you get too far behind on the payments gathers up some negotiation power back to the suppliers.
Hey, it's the Reg. They have lots of those funny 'English' bits in there. Makes it sound like Monty Python.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Peter, we the countless masses love your stupendously powerful DRM! We cannot help but spontaneously comment on your awesomeness and the fantastic potential of your company!
Here's to double digit (cents) per share by the end of the year!
Go team go!
And what would you have done in his place? Folded the company?
What many of the posters on this thread fail to realize is that this guy, and thousands of CEOs like him, have a FIDUCIARY responsibility to their shareholders to return value. That is how capital markets work. If they fail to do their jobs, they will be terminated. If they are negligent in carrying out their duties, they will be sued.
What's wrong here is that there is no honor in this type of employment. If I were in his place, and found that I could not get my company to do anything worthwhile, such as produce quality products, sell them, and improve the world somehow, then I would keep my honor and resign my position.
The problem with western society, at least in business, is that there is no honor at all, and corporate executives are perfectly happy to do anything they can to make money, no matter how unethical it is, as long as they don't get caught and go to prison. Some skirt along the edges of the law, some actually go beyond and do something illegal (Enron, etc.), but it's all the same. But what's worse is that everyone else defends their unethical actions, with BS terms like "fiduciary responsibility".
A society run this way does not have long-term viability, and is not a place that people with ethics and honor will want to live in.
Don't forget that Sunncomm also changed their ticker symbol. When the Princeton student lawsuit was filed, their ticker symbol was STEH. Since then, they've changed their symbol to the more appropriate SCMI.
If you don't get it, pronounce it.
But why is the rum gone?
What's wrong here is that there is no honor in this type of employment.
In your opinion....
If I were in his place, and found that I could not get my company to do anything worthwhile, such as produce quality products, sell them, and improve the world somehow, then I would keep my honor and resign my position.
And leave hundreds of innocent investors holding the bag?
Great. I'm glad you don't run a company.
The problem with western society,
Here we go.....
at least in business, is that there is no honor at all, and corporate executives are perfectly happy to do anything they can to make money,
BECAUSE IT IS THEIR JOB!!!!
Cripes, man! Here's your statement reformatted:
"..and computer programmers are perfectly happy to do anything they can to write code..."
Does that sound as bad with YOUR profession in it?
no matter how unethical it is,
Now you are inserting your own impressions. What this guy did, as far as is evident from the Register's article, is legal and ethical.
as long as they don't get caught and go to prison.
Now you are implying that what he did is illegal.
You've just introduced a "non-fact" into the argument.
Congratulations on your smear job.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
What makes them such easy targets for us critics of capitalism (who may sometimes *be* capitalists) are legion:
/fail/ to act like decent human beings in the course of their duties, they will also be sued.
Business as Usual may be the official right way for capital markets, but Corporate Darwinism makes for an unpleasant life. Most people don't want wealth qua wealth, they want wealth as a means to a pleasant life.
An incorporated entity's LEGAL responsibility to act in the best interests of society supercedes its FIDUCIARY responsibility to "return value". If they
I have to wonder, is there some reason you *want* to live in a world of mercenaries? Or are you just too faithful to question Holy Laissez-Faire?
1. Agilis and Ced_Ex talk business
2. ???
3. PROFIT!!!!
Live forever, or die trying.
Mod parent up.
Couldn't have said it better myself. If your responsibility is to make money, by hook or by crook, you're living a perverted form of capitalism. Capitalism is supposed to reward people for innovating and producing--not to reward people who pretend to produce and do it well. If your real goal is innovation, you will make your money.
Check out their report on Macrovision CDS-300 version 7 beta.
Your mileage may vary, but mine is constant.
After reading that, you can see what SCO are up to. There is _NO_ actual product (or sales)... just a string of purchases/deals/shares (were does the real money come from?) to keep the share price up and cause investment to the coffers - all electronic, of course - no 'real paper money' to actually have in yer wallet.
Bubble gum money - non-existant.
The Register tends to dismiss DRM technology as a type of pointless CD cancer that will stop people from enjoying the free exchange of culture they've come to expect. ...
"I came into the company like Harvey Keitel came into Pulp Fiction - to fix the deal," Jacobs said.
Wow! In this election time of spin, the short sweet truth is like a punch.
"..and computer programmers are perfectly happy to do anything they can to write code..."
Does that sound as bad with YOUR profession in it?
Yes, it *does* sound as bad with my profession in it. I do believe that programmers who will do "anything they can to write code" are dishonourable. Honourable programmers should refuse to write viruses, spyware, trojans or pr0n-diallers for their employers; likewise, CEOs, CTOs and other executives should refuse to do unethical/illegal things, even if they would improve short-term stock value.
I think the original poster was trying to say that "fiduciary responsibility" is not a valid ethical defense. Someone telling you it's your job to make money at all costs does not magically make any money-making action, on your part, ethical.
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
That's what scares me the most about "business" anymore. It's no longer about wanting to run an organization, create or sell a compelling product. It's all about finding and using gimmicks to ultimately make yourself wealthy, whether those gimmicks are patents, copyrights, or semi-fraudulent business practices.
I think a lot of our economy is built this way, and I think that it's largely what they've been teaching in business schools -- outsource everything but your core marketing staff. It makes you a more "pure" businessman.
So if you live in a country where it's legal to torture and murder certain people, and your employer tells you to do so, would you do it? Sounds like you would.
Legal doesn't mean ethical.
I don't care what someone's "job" is, if their job requires them to do something unethical, then their only way of not being complete scum is to resign their job. The investors would be better off losing their money, so they'll learn not to invest in stupid scams again. Rewarding this behavior does not result in a healthy society.
...but Corporate Darwinism makes for an unpleasant life.
More unpleasant than scraping out an existence on an unfertile piece of land somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa?
Most people don't want wealth qua wealth, they want wealth as a means to a pleasant life.
Thanks for speaking for 'most' people.
Most people want wealth as a means to a pleasant life until they amass wealth. Their views change at a certain financial tipping point.
I have to wonder, is there some reason you *want* to live in a world of mercenaries?
If you mean financial mercenaries, then yes there is a reason.
Financial mercenaries are working to lower costs to drive up profits. Because there are financial mercenaries in the world we have a just-in-time inventory system, instead of a just-in-case inventory system. That means lower costs, lower prices, and more jobs.
Because we have a system that encourages financial mercenaries to abound, we have financial institutions who spread cash around to get a higher return on investment. That ensures that risky investments have a chance to get funding, instead of the way things USED to be done (pre-1980).
Because of financial mercenaries, I have a wealth of choice. I walk through the aisles of the local hardware megamart and can select from dozens of different items, not just the few that were available to the middle- and lower-class just 20 years ago.
Or are you just too faithful to question Holy Laissez-Faire?
You bet!
And when you find a laissez faire system, you'll let me know, won't you?
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
...write viruses, spyware, trojans or pr0n-diallers for their employers
Of course, this line was started with the impression that I advocated illegal activities of any kind.
Read the parent before banging your chest.
I think the original poster was trying to say that "fiduciary responsibility" is not a valid ethical defense.
For what? Returning value to investors?
Great. Send me your money. I will only do what YOU consider ethical with it.
And you will probably lose it all in a year.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
I swear they're literally in the business of being in business. We could be selling chewing gum and they would be just as happy.
When it comes down to it, they have a choice: Work for someone else, or run their own business. If their business gives them a nice, fat, steady paycheck, they don't care what they're selling! Being "in the business of being in business" isn't as sexy as maybe running a Fortune 500, but it sure beats working for someone else who just wants you to help them buy that Lexus and inground pool.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
Maybe a catastrophic success....
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
So if you live in a country where it's legal to torture and murder certain people,..
Right.
Murder and torture.
Sure.
When you are in a position to make money for someone other than yourself, re-read my post to see if you feel differently on your ethical responsibilities.
After all, the employees who depend on the paychecks from their jobs will appreciate the fact that you will not do something you feel is unethical to keep food on their table.
And the pensioner who relies on the investment in your company to keep their medication filled will appreciate how you shunned doing a financial transaction because you felt it was "unethical".
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
The nature of complexity is that it is not so much about the doing of things, it is about the MANAGEMENT of the doing of things. Thus the big money is made by the management, not the artists or workers. Thus America makes its biggest bucks on management expertise (labelled banking, investment, marketing, consulting, security, and insurance). Thus most of your DNA is not for making protein, but for regulating (turning on and off the production and use of that protein).
Products are incidental. Services are incidental. Why sell products--why produce DRM that is a little harder to defeat--when your real goal has never been to sell a product anyways? The real goal is to sell a company (read: sell shares). That's what the article shows us.
Frankly, it's a little scary. But that's how things get done these days. How much of our economy, I wonder, is built this way, lacking foundation?
It only LOOKS like it lacks a foundation. The creating of motivation and legal structures IS in fact the foundation for the "real" work.
When there is no "real" work, then all that "foundation" activity is PARASITIC. But parasites can evolve like anything else, and I'll bet more than one really useful public institution started out as a mere parasite sucking the blood off the working class.
Why is sunncomm the bad company? Because they make DRM? Judging by the track record, they do a good job with the product they make, at least after Jacobs took over.
Sony spent over 20 million making hardware CD copy protection that can be defeated by a magic marker.
Sunncomm spent 3 million making CD software copy protection that can (could) be defeated by the shift key.
anonymous sunncomm developer
They made a fortune peddling their snake oil resulting from a minimal software development investment. If they don't lose it all in class action suits I'd consider it a success (for them).
When you are in a position to make money for someone other than yourself, re-read my post to see if you feel differently on your ethical responsibilities.
This was never about someone's "responsibility" to make money. It's about how that money gets made. People who invest their pension check in companies that don't even have a product have made a bad investment. You seem to be claiming that this guy is "just trying to make money for investors." Wrong. This guy is trying to do just well enough to attract more investors which means more money for him.
Your amoral view of business is downright disturbing. "Make money by whatever means necessary." That's some evil stuff, man.
Hey - does anyone know whatever happened to the rumor about Philips twisting arms over the use of the "CD-ROM" logo. I remember hearing that Philips had invented the CD and companies had to pay to put that little icon on the jewel case that says "CD-ROM". Philips was supposed to be looking in to not allowing people to put that logo on their CD if it was copy protected in a certain way, since the CD no longer complied to the spec. Anyone know anything about this?
Check out the last five questions and answers on the same page! Get the fealing it came from the redundancy department of redundancy?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
"Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation." - John Keynes (1936)
(although he meant that in a macroeconomic sense and this is the case of one company, I think it's still apt.)
One of the first things that I did when I was playing with Windows Chicago betas was to disable auto loading of CD related stuff. It's bloody annoying. Every computer that I had running Windows thereafter (through Windows ME, after that I stopped using Windows for Linux) had autorun disabled on the CD-ROM drives.
Oh no, I turned off an optional feature of the UI's shell! I'm going to Hell and going to be prosecuted for using a circumvention device!
Suncomm needs to go perform impossible acts of anatomy upon themselves, and the music industry needs to follow suit. If they don't like the ease which data can be copied in raw form from CDs they're welcome to design a new media and new drive that they only control.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Why not ask these guys: http://www.sco.com/
Wow you're never going to get ahead with views like that.
If theres anything I've learnt from watching the news recently it's that it's clearly wrong to torture people, plus it's also illegal here in the UK. But that is just a technicality.
Fortunately our Home Secretary David Blunkett has explained this neat little trick for getting round the moral dilemma. You can out-source the actual torturing to americans thus gaining the benefit from torturing people whilst still holding the moral high ground.
I think it's called "the third way".
"These people are tasked with doing everything within the bounds of the law to return value to the shareholder."
+3 insightful?
Lemme add one more:
"sometimes they even break the law(s) or buy their own law(s) to return value to the shareholder."
there, it looks better now.
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
"And what would you have done in his place? Folded the company?"
If the choice is between an immoral activity and folding, then yes, I'd fold the company. That's not even a contest.
The fact that people like you excuse immoral and illegal activity under a hand-wave and "fiduciary responsibility" makes the world a less desirable place to live.
Take a long hard look in the mirror, because you're the problem.
"More unpleasant than scraping out an existence on an unfertile piece of land somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa?"
So in your world, we either (a) have corporate robber barons destroying any sembalance of morality and character or (b) living in squallor.
Gee, my common sense tells me there is something in between those two extremes. My common sense also tells me you're full of shit.
They played the crap out of "slither", the album came out with DRM, and so it sold.
But anybody with a brain downloaded the MP3's first and found out the album was absolute shit. Its horrible. Talk about a bunch of musicians that sold out. They really sold out. This album could be the worst album of the decade (so far).
"anonymous sunncomm developer"
Yeah, well, hope you get cancer.
What I don't understand is how they can limit the number of copies. The vast majority of CD players are exactly that - players only, not writers. It's a read-only medium, so they can't be updating a copy count on the CD itself. They have to be assuming that you only ever use a single computer to play/copy the CD, so they can keep a copy count somewhere on disk, and don't ever take the disk to a different computer to copy it more times than allowed.
Or have I missed something vital?? And how would the copy know that it hadn't been cloned??
They get their money by printing shares. SunnComm has issued about 200M new shares since July 2004. If they issued them at an average price of 6 cents, that is $12M in just over a year. Where has that money gone to?
That's why some companies chose to remain non-reporting. Investors assume that management are working for the benefit of shareholders, but often they find out too late that management have just been lining their own pockets (paying themselves large salaries, bonuses, conmsulting fees).
A company can have a valid product and still be a scam. The scam is in deceiving the public into thinking the company is doing very well, enticing investors and creditors to invest/lend more.
For all its hundreds of PRs talking about deals and breakthrough inventions, revenue to SunnComm in Q2 2004 was just $18K. A badly located used car yard would do more.
Surely you meant "capitalist markets"? I mean, it's not like you were just parroting lines and happened to transpose or drop a few letters here and there, you actually know what you're talking about!