Slashdot Mirror
Lawsuits Fly Over Google Founders' Party Plane
Mr. Soxley writes to tell us that the Boeing 767 recently purchased by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page is at the heart of what promises to be quite a legal battle. From the article: "Now the Delaware holding company that technically owns the 767, Blue City Holdings LLC, is embroiled in multiple lawsuits with an aviation designer hired to plan and oversee the massive plane's interior renovation. [...] But last October, Blue City terminated Mr. Jennings's contract, saying he wasn't doing his job properly. Mr. Jennings then filed a nearly $200,000 lien against the aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration for payment he hadn't received. He later filed a complaint related to the matter against Blue City and Gore Design Completions Ltd., the San Antonio executive-jet outfitting firm that worked on the plane, in District Court in Bexar County, Texas."
"Mr. Jennings says allegations that he wasn't sufficiently involved in the project or accessible to the plane's owners are false, and has over 1,200 emails related to the project to disprove them."
Just because you have 1200+ emails relating to a project doesn't necessarily mean you are doing your job. With a project this size it could be argued that fewer emails mean you are doing your job better. This is the kind of project that requires a fair amount of oversight on a local level.
I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
If the plane wasn't even remotely related to Google, the story wouldn't even be here. Am I missing something?
How the hell is this YRO?
Seriously. Why should anyone care? Lawsuits and construction go together like oil and oil. A $200k contract dispute is non-news.
WGAS tag?
...for the rest of us concerning our modified 767s. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I also hear Mr. Brin also had a dispute with his home gutter contractor.
And let's not ever forget this gem from the article:
Mr. Jennings says Messrs. Brin and Page "had some strange requests," including hammocks hung from the ceiling of the plane.
I think stockholders should be quite wary of corporate executives reckless enough not to require aviation-class hammocks with wicker seatbelts.
arguing over who outfits my fuck off jet, its a problem I would be happy to have.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
What does Star Jones think of all this, and is the northeast still flooded?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
The idea of hammocks in a big jet doesn't sound unsafe.
It takes real guts to use a hammock in an ornithopter.
Whoo, signature!
DesireCampbell.com
Yeah it just a plain stupid suit about a plain stupid plane.
No cellulose wing, or X-prise, or other techno gear.
(Sigh)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The Slashdot editors... Faithfully bringing you last weeks Reg stories today!
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
People think this doesn't matter, but one thing is for certain, there is no stopping them, Brin and Page will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our customized-767-hammock-flying overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted member of Slashdot, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground server caves.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
You know that a company is on the way down when its founders buy a 767. Buying a 767 indicates that being rich is beginning to occupy their thinking, rather than management.
From the WSJ article: Mr. Jennings says Messrs. Brin and Page "had some strange requests," including hammocks hung from the ceiling of the plane. At one point he witnessed a dispute between them over whether Mr. Brin should have a "California king" size bed, he says. Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt stepped in to resolve that by saying, "Sergey, you can have whatever bed you want in your room; Larry, you can have whatever kind of bed you want in your bedroom. Let's move on." Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt at another point told him, "It's a party airplane."
Were all the typos and misspellings in your post to avoid getting detected... by them?
Now you all know why Google signed the deal for office space at NASA Ames. It's not some expansion into the orbial launch business or some plot to be the intergalactic search engine. They signed a deal with NASA Ames so they could land their 767 on Moffett Federal's nine thousand foot runway biking distance from the Google campus. Must be nice to be all special like that.
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
The "preview" button, a misunderstood and often mis-used miracle of modern science.
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
No it shouldn't. I don't remember any of the Google lot having been convicted for anything - there's quite a difference there. Also, I'm not American so I don't know who the Tyco guy is, but Ken Lay and Martha Stewart in the same breath? Wouldn't you think there was just a little bit of difference in the level of scam pulled...?
I'm not a Google fan really. In fact, if someone would give me as clean an interface I'd switch away from its search in a heartbeat, as I find it too heavily spammed and blogged these days. But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
Cheers,
Ian
Why does this remind me of Austin Power's psychedelic 747 with bachelor pad interior?
Sergey: "Do I make you horny, baby?"
Cute chick: "Sergey, it's not the 90's anymore."
Sergey: "What do you mean, baby? Of course it's the 90's! As long as people use the internet mostly for porn and piracy of music and software, the 90's will always be alive!"
Dr. Evil: "I'm going to fucking kill Google!" *throws henchman's chair*
Dr. Evil: "So, about those Killer Chair Robots With Lasers I ordered..."
Henchman: "Well, it's about that, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Yes?"
Henchman: "We... could not complete the LongChair project. It kept crashing on us, I mean more than usual, in fact the prototype blew up spontaneously."
Dr. Evil: "Well, okay, what do you have?"
Henchman: "Ottomans."
Dr. Evil: "Ottomans?"
Henchman: "Ottomans, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Do they have frickin' lasers on their heads?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Saw blades?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Flamethrowers?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Well, what the fuck do they have?!"
Henchman: "Sir, we have integrated a Google search bar into their sides. It's really quite useful, you can Google while you lounge in-"
Dr. Evil: "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL GOOGLE!!!!" *throws chair with henchman through window*
Sergey and Larry are Billionaires... To put that in perspective, if you had a net worth of 1 million dollars this would be like being sued for $200.
Apparently TechGranny thinks Google is trying to invent a new kind of internet plane.
TechGranny on the internet planes.
Make the world better. Quit hating.
Besides, if you're phenomenally wealthy I don't know of any law that says you shouldn't enjoy it. I mean ... what would be the other reasons for acquiring lots of money? Granted, a 767 does seem a bit grandiose, but no worse than the hundreds of millions that Bill Gates' has spent on his various homes.
... okay ... now swing back to the left ... ahh, now you got it. Keep doing that for a while."
Frankly, I think a hammock on a jetliner sounds like fun.
"Okay Bob, a nice gentle bank to the right
It wouldn't surprise me if Brin and Page get a little miffed at this guy for discussing their private jet in public, though.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
You are assuming that no punitive damages will be awarded.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Search engine collects data used for marketing. Story at 11.
Seriously, do you really think that anyone actually belives the "Do No Evil" hype? People are people. Google is no diffrent. They're interested in profit. If they do good things allong the way, more power to them.
The diffrence is that they haven't yet screwed anyone else out of money (IMHO, Martha doesn't belong in that group either)
Alright, I'll admit it-- I didn't read the article, and I barely read the summary.
But I did see "$200,000", "party", and "lawsuit" -- and I think we can all conclude the stripper's probably lying.
Bill may have taken commercial airlines but shall we talk about he or his partners yachts? You know, the ones that are in magazines almost constantly because they are so big and so decked out? Or the small islands they own?
Just because you are jealous someone else has more money than you do not tell them how to spend it. They made a successful business, and now are spending the fruits of their labor. How is that evil? Sounds like every American or European's wet dream to me.
I fail to see where it is evil except that it makes you green with envy.
...because two ridiculously wealth guys who happen to run a search engine many people prefer own the plane that's at the heart of the lawsuit? Google is (mostly) a media darling, granted, but I really could care less about a lawsuit involving their plane. A plane? Good grief.
I don't know where you get the google boys being evil from this.
The main princriple is sueing the holding company above him and he also has action against the subcontractor below him that actually did the work.
"He later filed a complaint related to the matter against Blue City and Gore Design Completions Ltd., the San Antonio executive-jet outfitting firm that worked on the plane, in District Court in Bexar County, Texas."
That seems to indicate that the work was indeed improperly done and as lead contractor he is being held responsible. His response sue above and below and try to pass the buck.
I see no evil from the google guys here.
You mean knowing that I like cheese sandwiches, live in England and have a friend called Theresia will let them take over the world?! OMG you are right. There are no limits to what they can do now. Mind control is nothing next to this.
I believe that the parties involved might be of interest to some people, and for variosu reasons. For example, Google has been touted ad the "omni-beneveloent corporate goliath" of the internet. One of the reasons *I* liked Google (aside from having a good search engine) was the fact that its founders seemed to be well-grounded - in other words, their pursuit wasn't based on the "status" it might afford them, but in being able to do something useful (and very well) with internet technology.
When stories like this surface, it makes me wonder if the money has changed some fundamental aspects of their initial vision. If money can serve as a catalyst to *this* kind of change, what other changes can result? Will they, at some point in the future, adopt an AT&T-like mentality where money is more important than integrity?
Land of the silly hyperbole, home of the crackpot.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Why not burn 12000 gallons of fuel per capita to get to the next great party? After all, they will be dead on 50 years so it doesn't effect them.
Ever wonder why American troops are fighting for Iraqi oil? Bush just sells it - it is clowns like this that burn it up.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Pretty sure the idea was, "Look, Google is doing evil! The founders have their own jet and they sue the little guy! ZOMG! The Evil!"
that mr gates apparently had to be convinced (with some difficulty) that using charter planes would be more productive than taking commercial flights. while the google guys are buying an enormous 767 with hammocks to "party" on. interesting
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
No, no... knowing a little about one person isn't dangerous. It's when they know that everyone in England likes cheese sandwiches that you need to worry. Using subliminal AdWords messages to ignite the Great Cheese Embargo of 2007 is just the first step in their master plan...
Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
You can't have a pimped out airliner in your hangar and still be "not evil". In fact, you can't have a hangar in the first place and retain not-evil status, unless you're a South American drug-lord, in which case you're just badass.
This is common knowledge.
Please cite any sources you have that proves the "Google guys" had their accounting team record losses in the main corporation as profits for shell corporations, spent millions of dollars of company money on parties and/or shower curtains, or were involved in any sort of insider trading.
Not worried? Still believe the "no evil" hype.
By your logic and bad grammar if I'm not worried then I must follow your command and still believe the "no evil" hype. Well, duh. If I wasn't worried I probably believed that to begin with. Thank you, Mr. Obvious.
Is a "fungible moreal" some sort of Chinese delicacy?
I just find it... I dunno... sad? offputting? ...that billionaires pretty much choose to blow off steam about the same way Bubba in the trailer park does, just more expensively. Booze and drugs and whores. Outside of technical endeavors, we are ultimately an uncreative species. :(
Just work hard and you too can have a plane with a piano and a California King bed in it too.
But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
Yet.
If there's one universal truth to remember about human nature it's this: behavior is consistent.
People aren't nice-nice in one situation and petty-awful in others unless one or the other is a deliberate facade to facilitate an agenda.
But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
BOYS being the keyword here. They are behaving like spoiled little children.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Wow. You're idea of morality is "you don't get convicted".
Michael Jackson is a fucking saint.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
If I had a few billion in cash in the bank I would act like a spoiled child too.
"In fact, if someone would give me as clean an interface I'd switch away from its search in a heartbeat..."
http://search.yahoo.com/
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Isn't a 767 a bit of overkill??
No, A 757 could only make it through the outer three rings of The Pentagon, something previously thought impossible.
I'm certain Google's founders are using their new found wealth to plot another terrorist attack and set a new world record for how many buildings can be taken down by planes in a day, to distract us from the real Iraq.
They're not evil, they just work for the government.
When studying introverts amongst young children it has been found that many times children only show aspects of introversion in situations when a subject isn't one of their interests etc.. You don't act the same in all situations.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
Imports/exports of cheese in every country is public knowledge anyway.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
I've got 1200 emails about Viagra - I'm not involved in cock-pills.
And Jennings has 1200 emails about the airplane, proving Google's position that he was not involved!
paintball
How you spend money for yourself, and how you spend money for your company are two completely different things. Bill may have spent many millions on his own home, but he was notorious for flying coach, and only in '97 did he buy a personal jet, with his own money. I don't know who is footing the bill for google's new toy, but google has definitely always been about excess.
Why doesn't Google just send the plane over to Galpin Auto Sports and let Xzibit and Mad Mike film a gonzo Pimp My Jet special for MTV?
Guess FuckedGoogle was right about their 767 being up in flames, albeit of the legal kind ;).
Dang, there must be some mods on crack today... What, they cant be allowed such things as karmic justice?
"Forget the engineers." -Carly Fiorina, briber of MIT Technology Review.
actually, that sounds like a pretty good morality to me. How'd you like it if the cops made you pay a ticket because, "well, a couple other people with cars like yours were speeding today, so we decided you had to pay up as well"? If the crimemakers can't prove to society that someone committed a crime (you know, jury of your peers), then they shouldn't be thought of as criminals. You can't consider someone to be a criminal just because they like to spend their (rightfully earned) money left and right.
I am flabbergasted that a company worth billions actually allows both head honchos to travel in the same plane. This might kill both. In the business world the "board members etc. travel apart"-rule is quite a common policy and it is for sure not a new aspect to Brin and Page. Which is even more un-understandable as it shows that they are acting against what their advisors must have told them.
...but I do, and apparently so do the Slashdot editors who chose this title.
They're going to be digitizing it (like in Tron) so that they can fight viruses personally. They'll also be improving the searches by overseeing the programs responsible through direct communication rather than through programming.
Its thought that it'll be a little safer for them to do this in a plane since all the programs only have bikes. A plane will also help avoid the dangerous lines emitted by the back of the bikes, which can cause deresolution to those who don't have lightening reflexes.
Not that it's all going to be for business, of course. They've hired some playboy girls to write a few of the programs (well...they're only visual basic, but it counts), since all programs end up looking exactly like the person who writes them while inside, and all users are viewed as gods when they enter the internet.
Point is, they're impeding google's ability to improve it's searches, which impedes my ability to have better google searches.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
actually, that sounds like a pretty good morality to me.
If the crimemakers can't prove to society that someone committed a crime (you know, jury of your peers), then they shouldn't be thought of as criminals.
Nice little bait and switch. We were talking about morality, then you switch it to "criminality". So, a CEO that gets a ten million dollar severance package after canning half of his employees and outsourcing it to India is perfectly moral since he broke no law.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong, but I thought the whole point of them buying a 767 was because 1) a used jumbo is cheaper to buy and outfit than a new business jet; 2) the operating range of a 767 is much farther than a business jet; and 3) that they can accomodate a whole lot more people in a whole lot more luxury on a pimped-out 767 than on a business jet.
Sorry if it seems extravagent, but these sound like the kind of people I'd like to have sending my team to conferences, rather than the folks who now send us in cattle class (even when the VP flies in first).
"Okay Bob, a nice gentle bank to the right ... okay ... now swing back to the left ... ahh, now you got it. Keep doing that for a while."
Wait until the pilot "accidentally" banks deep into some restricted airspace (on one of the CEO's orders), and they ask who ordered it to later learn that Stanford privlege doesnt buy you out of jail.
Heck, if you have a $180k hammock in there, pay the pilot extra to fly *into* turbulence that isnt a microburst.
The only thing really overkill though would be them using it as a Vomit Comet. How do you explain that to the shareholders- giving them a good impression, and potential prospects to work for google an unforgettable interview?
It wouldn't surprise me if Brin and Page get a little miffed at this guy for discussing their private jet in public, though.
For what's being discussed, it'd be overreacting. It's not like they used blood money(y'know, jobs!) to buy it like Carly "Only my job is god given" Fiorina. Given that you have to be from a very exclusive college(and a mindset to match to seal yourself an offer) to work for Google, it's not like they had Carly's Problem though.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
sing subliminal AdWords messages to ignite the Great Chinese Embargo of 2007 is just the first step in their master plan...
There, fixed it for you.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Is a "fungible moral" some sort of Chinese delicacy?
No, but that's what human rights seem not to be Over There.
I agree.
"Canning half his employees" might have been necessary in order to keep the company from folding.
If it hadn't been, the board would surely not reward the departing CEO with such a generous severance package.
And, you're right, he broke no law. Business is business. And what about the other half of the employees that got to keep their jobs, since the company didn't fold? Would the option of folding the company and sending 100% of the employees out looking for jobs have been a better one?
I realize I'm perhaps using a strawman; not all business decisions are made based on life-or-death-of-the-company.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Fuck, it's people like you that piss me off.
...Snakes on a motherfucking Google plane.
Great people talk about ideas
Average people talk about things
Small people talk about other people
and Slimy people PATENT ideas.
And since the plane was purchased by the founders not by Google you are an idiot it seems.
I'll bet green money that the dispute involved lava lamps in some way. As in, the airplane couldn't safely achieve liftoff due to the sheer volume of lava lamps. Or the pilot couldn't see, because of the giant lava lamp in the cockpit. Lava lamps are probably involved here.
You must be new here.
You also might want to do a search for 'click fraud' and the hundreds, if not thousands, of accounts Google has arbitrarily cancelled and refused to pay ad revenue to, citing click fraud, yet not providing a) any evidence, or b) any recourse.
Most companies with a modicum of respect for their employees either (ideally) don't allocate travel class on seniority, but on distance of travel, or failing that, "highest common denominator" - if one person travelling as part of a group is eligible to fly Business / First, then all members of that group fly the same. (This was the case at a law firm I worked at - I had to travel from Melbourne Australia to New York with a partner of the firm. I was eligible to travel Business, but as the partner was eligible to travel First, I got to, too).
Everyone has 24 hours in every day. Google is growing VERY rapidly in complexity. Every hour spent preparing for extreme partying is an hour not spent managing Google, which is slowly getting out of control. For example, Google's human resources department has become abusive.
1) they ripped off "Current Contents" citation index
2) pretended that they knew what they were doing just because they were at stanford
3) got tons of money, which validated the rip-off in peoples minds
now look at them. A couple of turds arguing over how to decorate they fancy plane.
i'll askjeeves from now on.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
BG has been a long time owner of a 767 for his personal flights. In fact, Paul Allen owns a 757 . They bought them in mid 80s. And have rarely flown anything but those since. If you wish to see them, go to Boeing Airfield.
The big difference is that both Bill and Paul bought them when they were expensive. No, they were not worth more than the Google Guys (in fact, I would guess that if MS had not just built their monopoly at the time, they could not of afforded it). And more importantly, the "Google Guys" are not buying it, but the company is, for company use. Considering the situation after 9/11, it may actually be cheaper to fly than to use commercial.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
That's young children, though. Their neuralchem nets are still in some amount of flux.
Is it true that Bill Gates travelled on scheduled airlines until relatvely recently, say the mid-90's? I heard that he did so because he wanted the experience of the average businessperson, (presumably) so that he could help guide software development to meet their needs. It seems incredible now, but Gates was not well known back then and could probably travel without attracting too much attention. Could be apocryphal, but if true, it's the sort of dedication and obsessive focus that has made MS so successful while other firms flame-out.
to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...
begin $0.02
Just because an article contains the word Google does not mean that it is news for neards or stuff that matters.
end $0.02
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Word of the day? How come I've seen this about a thousand times, every time someone mentions they now use OS X after using something else previously? New word of the day: coward (n) - someone who feels so insecure in their own position in life that they cannot bear to launch a fanboy attack under a real name.
It's a copy-paste troll, like "How do I install Quake 3 in Linux?" and crap like that.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
It's that sort of arrogance that will prevent Mac OS X from ever becoming a real option on the desktop.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
It's a stupid reason, but it's basically that and the lack of other appropriate categories...
Does being a "Mac-type person"(aka an idiot) include having a humorectomy? Because that comment makes it seem like that's so.
At any rate, the only piece of my computer that's beige is my monitor, and the rest is black and silver, which is infinitely better than white plastic. Hell, even beige is better than white plastic. I'll leave me to my better and cheaper hardware, while you get to keep your white--wait, now it's yellow!--plastic.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Yeah, if you read the fine print, Apple does require an Apple iHumor replacement module for "real" Mac users. Us fakes get by without having to get one, but we miss out on special advance access to the Reality Distortion Field (tm) and other iPerks.
And I agree on the white plastic stuff - just feels like a glossy version of Dell/HP/Compaq plastic glory. The biggest difference - if I had a MacBook, I'd feel I paid way too much to mess up my shiny plastic, while if it were a Dell, I'd realize it was going to not look good all its life, so I don't care what happens to it as long as the thing boots, doesn't have an exploding battery, and doesn't make weird HDD death noises.
I like metal cases - alumninum PowerBooks, aluminum LCDs, and, my favorite, the Antec Sonata case for my PC with like 3-4mm thick steel. Sure, it's a beast, but I can beat the hell out the thing and it never breaks (and the anti-noise mountings do a fair amount of shock absorption too...not a lot, but good enough).
It's sad that people even read this stuff. I mean, really, the only reason that anyone would care about this is simply to let people know that they can afford to go to court with a contractor. Contractors are brought in to do work. Most the time the founders of the companies themselves (especially on this side of the globe) have no idea what it is that they want. And as for the very first argument. It said they had 1200+ emails that what was it.... "Mr. Jennings, 67 years old, says the allegations are groundless. He says he was wrongly fired after trying to alert Mr. Schmidt that Blue City was going to be overcharged for some materials used in the interior of the plane. Mr. Jennings says allegations that he wasn't sufficiently involved in the project or accessible to the plane's owners are false, and has over 1,200 emails related to the project to disprove them." I believe that's what Kevin J. Delaney at the WSJ wrote. So, there probably weren't just 1200 emails that was just the amount of emails that disproved their publicly stated reasoning that lead to his termination. So apparently he was involved in the project and accessible to the plane owners. I would almost guaruntee that it doesn't matter to these individuals, as they have money. So instead of acting like descent individuals with money and letting someone they signed a contract with finish their obligation to the company, they blame the contractor for internal problems with the project and let him take the fall instead of themselves. Isn't that how it always goes? Wouldn't they have so much more to lose for overspending and breaking budget on a party plane for the company? If he actually accounted for his time on contract using activity based accounting principles I wonder if he would have truely even been being paid enough for his time. It certainly would clear up any judgement the judicial system could not radicate. So yay for the corporation once again. For stepping on the little people. For knowing where to place blame. For being more of an anonymous coward than any man righteous enough to be independent. Where are the leaders and why is it that every time we get one we lose them to wealth, politics, media, and their own ego. I don't know what to make of the situation, but it definitely sounds familiar.
wilsonke "To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom." -- Socrates
Actually, there is no bait and switch. You did it first. "Don't get convicted" ring a bell? Unless you plead guilty, you have to be /convicted/ to be a criminal.
From the original post: "At least this start to lift the viel. The "do no evil" is merely PR hype. Google is collecting an enormous amount of informaiton about you and what you are searching on, who you email and IM with and about what, about where you go and when (calendar), etc. If the govenrment was doing this we'd have a revolution. Goole is a commercial entity and is a whole lot less accountable. This 767 story should remind us that the Google guys are no better than Ken Lay, the Tyco guy, or Marth Stewart."
The original poster was talking about morality "do not evil". He compared them with folks who got convicted, but he was talking about morality.
You are the one who talked about lack of convictions being equal to "moral superiority". They are not equivilent. It is possible to get a conviction for something that was morally right (underground railroad circa 1800's) or to not get convicted while being an absolute sleaze (Donald Trump, Michael Jackson) You introduced lack of conviction as equal to morality.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
OK, I got into a misunderstanding. I was simply replying to your comment without reading the parent. My point was that it's a pretty good moral belief to not consider someone a criminal until a court says they are. My fault. (wow, sometimes arguments on /. DO get resolved! haha)