Slashdot Mirror
Adam Savage Revises Claim of Lawyer-Bullying On RFID Show
Nick writes "A few weeks ago a video of a talk given by Adam Savage of the television show MythBusters spread across the internet (including a mention on Slashdot.) On the video, Savage stated that the show was unable to produce an episode about previously known RFID vulnerabilities due to a conference call to Texas Instruments that unexpectedly included several credit card companies' legal counsel. TI (via a spokesperson talking with cnet.com) stated that only one lawyer was on the call and that the majority of the people on the call were product managers from the Smart Card Alliance (SCA) invited by TI to speak. Then Savage (via a Discovery Communications statement) reaffirmed that he was not on the call himself and that the decision was not made by Discovery or their advertising sales department but rather MythBuster's production company, Beyond Productions."
Ladies and gentlemen, the TRUE Evil in our Country: Credit Cards - Visa, Mastercard, American Express and their subsequent host banks - which is all the banks because it's such easy money.
Don't use them you say?
Try it. No, go ahead and try to live in this day and age without a CC card. It's not all about "easy credit and instant gratification", it's the fact that MANY businesses exist and depend on credit cards and God forbid if you don't have one. Really? Yes really. Travel, for one.
We've grown so accustomed to these little evil pieces of plastic.
Consumer protection you say? HA! I say! All a merchant has to do is spell out exactly (even if it's in mice type that you can't read) what their policies are and when you the consumer goes and tries to dispute the charges, all the merchant has to say to the CC bank is that "it's spelled out clearly here" and BINGO, you're screwed!
Credit cards and especially Debit cards are an evil thrust upon us by Amex, Discover, Mastercard and Visa.
CONSUMER DEBT IS A RIP-OFF! NO EXCEPTIONS!
While it is hard to say what the full story is, is it THAT hard to believe that Adam (who, let us face it, can be kinda flakey) simply got his story wrong or got wrapped up in the story-telling?