Prosecutors Raid LG Offices Over Alleged Vandalism of Samsung Dishwashers

As reported by Reuters, Korean manufacturing giant LG's Seoul headquarters have been raided over allegations that LG employees sabotaged dishwashers made by rival Samsung. The Samsung machines were "on display at two stores in September ahead of the IFA electronics show in Berlin." From the article: On Friday, investigators searched the Seoul offices of LG Elec's home appliance head, Jo Seong-jin, and others and secured documents and computer hard disks related to the IFA fair, Yonhap News Agency said. They also combed through LG Electronics' home appliance factory in the southeastern city of Changwon, the report said. ... Samsung sued LG Electronics employees after the incident in Germany, and LG said the company has counter-sued Samsung employees on Dec. 12. Media reports have earlier said prosecutors banned LG's Seong-jin from leaving the country ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held January 6-9.

Comments

Re:I doubt it.

[TWX]

That's because, up until a few years ago, nearly all US-distributed appliances came out of a manufacturing plant in Evansville, Indiana, owned by the Whirlpool Corporation. Didn't matter if it was badged as Amana, Kenmore, Whirlpool, or any of a whole host of brands, they were all effectively the same machines.

Whirlpool screwed up. That screwup allowed other manufacturers to get a more of a foothold here, ones that could leverage previous badge-engineering and then transition to other sources for the products. It's similar to how GM and Isuzu screwed up and licensed the Isuzu Rodeo (MU) to Honda as the Passport, so Honda could get a jump on the SUV/CUV craze and establish themselves earlier than they would have been able to without having it in the first place.

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[Anonymous Coward]

Say all you want about innocent until proven guilty, but when when the government has the right to detain, raid, and otherwise completely interrupt/ruin your life on a whim or allegation, how is that fair?

It's not. Life's not fair. The whole point of granting government a right to detain, raid (with a warrant), or otherwise interrupt your life is to grant them sufficient power to attempt to carry out justice. Ie, it's a compromise against either anarchy or a police state.

Sure they cannot send you to prison without a trial, but they can detain you in a prison until a trial. They cannot fine or punish you without a trial, but they can raid and seize evidence on almost 0 grounds.

Yea, uh, that last part requires a warrant and it's not "almost 0 grounds". Courts (well, all except FISA) don't just rubber stamp things.

Compare this to the Cardassian system that will not detain you, will not question you, will not release to the public any allegations, you lose 0 rights and are not even inconvenienced until your guilt is proven. They are given the burden of proving your guilt before they can do any of these things.

And how do they prove your guilt? Oh, by constantly monitoring you 24/7. You live your entire life in a prison and it's up to the Obsidian Order to decide if you're being loyal enough or patriotic enough or whether their whim fancies to call you guilty of any number of crimes you're almost certainly guilty of. And best of all, the verdict is known from the start and the trial is but a show to test the people's loyalties, to make sure they're cheerleading loud enough. It's all straight out of 1984.

Honestly, if you think the Cardassian system is based on any sort of justice, you have to look no further than the way in which all other police states have functioned. Those in power execute their adversaries and those low enough in the political space (the vast peons) try not to stand out or otherwise offend anyone with any sort of government connect, lest they be charged with 99 counts of jaywalking and left to die in prison.

You see, there's more to a justice system than dishing out punishment on legitimate crimes committed. A large part of the very first complaint you make is a strength, as it prevents pervasive punishment of all crimes but instead focusing on suspicious, large, or habitual offenders who themselves are much more of a burden on society than the inconvenience of short-term detainment by law enforcement. You can argue that our current system in the US grants too much power to LEOs to search (which I agree with) or that warrants at the highest levels are being very abused (again, I'd agree). But a step towards radical authoritarianism is to merely grant the relatively light abuses by LEOs into fully sanctioned abuses without any useful line to protect us because the jury, the trial, and the sentence all get thrown out when the government decides you're guilty and there's nothing to stop them.

But, yea, keep believing that a monoculture of power is a solution to a degradation in the multiculture of power we have now.