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Why Google in China Makes Sense
ctd writes "The BBC is carrying an interesting article about the positive outcomes from Google's censorship of its China site." From the article: "Millions of people may now be turning away from Google in disgust, but I've just reinstated them as the default search for my Firefox toolbar, because I think it should be supported for its brave decision. Even if the primary motivation for going into China is that it makes commercial sense for the company - as indeed it must do, since US law is quite harsh on boards that take actions which could damage shareholder value - it also makes political sense. "
How on earth is starbucks socially responsible?
They pay below a living wage value for coffee beans and because of their size they can bully the suppliers into following along (think WalMart). The only reason they serve free trade coffee at some stores (Corp stores only) is because of a lawsuit they lost. Even at that you have to request the free trade coffee if it isn't on the one day a month they serve it all day.
The reason shareholder value went up is that they mitigated the lawsuit losses by getting the settlement to be one day a month or on request, and only corp stores. Thus the franchise stores can buy the cheaper coffee (from Starbucks corp.) and not offer the fair trade value coffee. Since Starbucks continues to profit from the franchise coffee sales it doesn't matter that the corp stores (which IIRC number less than franchise outlets) make less money.
1. screw the suppliers of your raw material in 3rd world countries
2. profit
3. get caught
4. mitigate lawsuit and spin off franchises immune from suit settlement
5. profit again!
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
The bottom of the page still says:
"In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org."
This leads me to believe there is still 1 missing result from that search, which I am not allowed to see, because of a law (DMCA) that my government has, even if it was a person or corporation which abused this law in this particular case, and not the government directly asking Google to remove the link.
Morphing Software
And especially when Google is letting people know they are being censored by their goverment...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.