PepsimanVsJoe
Member
PetriP-TNT said:
:lol
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Microsoft Does Something That Would Make Dick Cheney Blush
- Thread starter miyamotofreak
- Start date
:lol
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
The next time anyone reads a news story about a huge jury verdict that seems strange, remember the mindset in this thread. Dead child + deep-pocketed corporation that people resent can equal jackpot, with jurors predisposed to punishing the defendant before they hear any evidence.
I don't think their public stance has helped with the resentment any. I'm sure this won't go to trial and there will be a settlement. If it does too bad for MS, they will probably lose. What's happening now is part of the dance towards a settlement. MS is trying to put pressure on the victim's family not to go to trial.
I also don't agree this is what every corporation would do. Part of a PR firm's job is to not get a headline like this to begin with by dealing with problems beforehand, especially from consumers, before it reaches the stage of a lawsuit.
I also don't agree this is what every corporation would do. Part of a PR firm's job is to not get a headline like this to begin with by dealing with problems beforehand, especially from consumers, before it reaches the stage of a lawsuit.
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Wal-Mart (and I presume to a lesser extent Microsoft) plays by different rules than most corporations by virtue of its size and high profile. They stake out the strategic position that they will aggressively contest litigation and not settle; otherwise they would have suits filed against them every day in every state in the union by lawyers looking for a quick and easy settlement payday from a company with huge revenues able to pay it. Wal-Mart is willing to take the short term PR hit in order to preserve its litigious reputation and ward off thousands of slip-and-fall lawsuits.
Psychotext
Member
Thread is ludicrous. Let the courts do their job before we start judging people and companies here - that's what they are for.
SouthernDragon
Member
Screw the thread, did Microsoft state that the fire was due to neglect on the family's part?
On top of the death of their infant, Microsoft is asking that the family pay Microsoft's legal fees?
Disregarding the fact that Microsoft probably hires lawyers far beyond the economic reach of the majority of citizens, this is just the most cold-hearted thing I've ever seen. Not only do they blame the family for a defect that was well-known in their console, they have the gall to ask that the family pay them for this.
Disgusting.
Oh, and ethelred, considering the respect most of GAF gives you and the behaviour you usually display, that was most...
I dunno. It's weird, I didn't expect you to be the author of that post, and I hope I don't see like something like that again.
On top of the death of their infant, Microsoft is asking that the family pay Microsoft's legal fees?
Disregarding the fact that Microsoft probably hires lawyers far beyond the economic reach of the majority of citizens, this is just the most cold-hearted thing I've ever seen. Not only do they blame the family for a defect that was well-known in their console, they have the gall to ask that the family pay them for this.
Disgusting.
Oh, and ethelred, considering the respect most of GAF gives you and the behaviour you usually display, that was most...
I dunno. It's weird, I didn't expect you to be the author of that post, and I hope I don't see like something like that again.
Gattsu25 said:
Sorry, but I genuinely believe that any corporation or individual that is sued has a right to defend themselves, and if they believe the litigant is in the wrong, ask for their fees to be paid (which is standard practice). The fact that someone is dead does not automatically make Microsoft guilty or responsible for the death -- they may well be, and the facts may bear that out, but it doesn't do anyone any good to jump to the conclusion that they're wrong and should just quietly suck it up and pay a huge amount of money.
FlightOfHeaven said:
But it's not. And it is routine, like I said, for just about any corporation. Read up some more on lawsuits filed over accidental or negligent death, and you'll see that these companies -- any company -- will fight back hard. It's not just a matter of money, but they're trying to protect their reputation and not see people associated their corporate brand with "murderer."
You would, too, if someone lodged such an accusation at you. The fact that Microsoft is more powerful and has money does not mean we should be faster to assume that they deserve to be punished or that they're more likely at fault. If a jury goes over the facts of this case and decides they're liable for the death, then I hope Microsoft gets fined out the ass. Screaming about evils on a video game message board, though, is just posturing.
Hey, you may think my attitude's disgusting, but if you ever get accused of causing someone's death, I think you'd rather have me on the jury than a bunch of people who are going to say, "Oh! A death! And the defendant has the gall to defend himself! Shocking! Guilty!"
Jeez...do you people live in the real world? Asking the family to pay the legal fees if they lose is very standard. If companies didn't have the power to ask for this they could just be sued all day by people representing themselves who have nothing better to do. Its a warning that if you are trying to bring a frivolous case (not that I think this is, but it may be) against a big company and you lose it will cost you or else there is no risk in suing anyone.
Catchpenny
Member
Valid position.
Pretty standard operating procedure, though it is an intimidation tactic. This family is probably not capable of paying such a cost, so Microsoft is doing this in order to encourage them to accept a settlement down the road.
Now this is the disgusting part. Unless they're talking about a power cord sitting in a puddle or something. Sure sounds like they're referring to the recall, though.
Fairly Incredible
Member
Eh, they were probably going to give the baby away anyway.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
No, that would make too much sense.Sean*O said:
Guileless said:
How about giving people a little more credit?
The responses here seem to be based on what evidence there is available (MS does not contest that the Xbox was the source of the fire, and the subsequent power cord recall.)
As more information is brought to light, opinions may change, just like they would at a jury trial. Stop acting like this is anything other than normal behavior for any human being.
I don't see anyone calling for MS' head right now, but given what has been made available for public consumption it's very reasonable for people to take offense. That does not mean those same people will not change their mind should new evidence be brought to light.
It's pretty self-defeating to ridicule people for judging others while making broad generalizations about their character that goes for a few people on this thread, not just picking on you here.
PistolGrip
sex vacation in Guam
sounds like something mr Burns would say.
PistolGrip
sex vacation in Guam
ThirdEye said:
A woman died for a Wii for holding her wii
i know i know it doesnt count.
I don't see why "Make Dick Cheney Blush" is relevant to this forum. Keep American politics out of here unless it involves a video-game violence law discussion. And the thread title does little to explain the purpose of this thread. It's not clever.
Politics / Political debate has next to zero purpose on a videogame forum. I really don't care to hear anyone's political agenda when I log on here.
Politics / Political debate has next to zero purpose on a videogame forum. I really don't care to hear anyone's political agenda when I log on here.
Open Source
Banned
Dirtbag 504 said:
Dirtbag is correct and Bishop is wrong. Political trolling belongs in the political trolling (aka off topic) forum. If everyone did this shit in the on-topic forum, this place would be a cesspool (like the off topic forum, imagine that).
JzeroT1437
Member
Shane Kim:
"There's been a recall on our power cords? This will mean financial trauma!"
"There's been a recall on our power cords? This will mean financial trauma!"
No, Bishop is correct because he bloody well said so.Open Source said:
And if you think OT is a cesspool, whaddya call the system wars over on this side? Decorum, Inc.? If your politician of choice is getting smacked around, I suggest you log off the net, turn off the television, and head to your underground bunker with other like-minded individuals so your precious feelings won't get hurt, Elizabeth.
don't forget to close the door behind you
bishoptl said:No, Bishop is correct because he bloody well said so.
And if you think OT is a cesspool, whaddya call the system wars over on this side? Decorum, Inc.? If your politician of choice is getting smacked around, I suggest you log off the net, turn off the television, and head to your underground bunker with other like-minded individuals so your precious feelings won't get hurt, Elizabeth.
don't forget to close the door behind you
Or pick a less sucky politician
InterMoniker
Member
WTF!?!?!? They're suing the family for legal fees? Thats F-cking bullshit,
Why does Microsoft need $50,000 from that family If anything they should be paying the family.
So the baby passed away in '04 from a fire caused by the power cord
Microsoft recalls the power cord in '05
The family losses the case some how and has to pay Microsoft!?!?!
Wow.
The only political thing is the thread title. Not the Discussion.
turtle553 said:
Why does Microsoft need $50,000 from that family If anything they should be paying the family.
Sounds pretty cut and dry to me too.Onix said:
So the baby passed away in '04 from a fire caused by the power cord
Microsoft recalls the power cord in '05
The family losses the case some how and has to pay Microsoft!?!?!
Wow.
Open Source said:
The only political thing is the thread title. Not the Discussion.
Hollywood_mIRC
Banned
SailorDaravon said:
Yes ... because they're not known for this kind of thing before ...
http://clevescene.com/2005-03-30/news/kill-bill/
There's the case of a very infamous suit where Microsoft decided to sue a college student, for selling two unopened pieces of software on eBay for about $200. They sued him for that, and their legal costs, saying he caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. They didn't even bother to send him a reasonable argument, just cutting and pasting from a completely different lawsuit against him from another case - just hoping that he would cave like everyone else that they blanket sued. The lawyers were even callous enough to suggest selling his car to pay for it.
Long story short, the dude went to the law library, cut through all their jargon and threw it back at them, and it went like this back and forth like this and he did all kinds of cool legal stuff like requesting a trial by jury on the fly, and all kinds of counterclaims. And he had Microsoft on the ropes and they eventually settled with HIM. One of my all time favorite stories.
Bottom line: Microsoft is a cutthroat ethic-less company that could care less about who they sue or hard or put out of business with their tactics. It's no wonder this company has been sued and lost more money on suit's and anti-trust laws than any other company in world history.
Psychotext
Member
I'm so glad you're not a judge... and as you're not, why don't you wait for the verdict before passing judgement. I'm not saying this is the case here, but there's been more than a few times that people have seen recalls and realised they could get megabucks by associating something that happened to them with the recall.InterMoniker said:
Unless you have the reports of the fire investigation team at hand?
DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
I won't try and claim i know anything about the dodgy practices of all corporate companies, or the facts of this trail - because i don't so the only thing i can say on this matter is :
"I don't know enough about this case to say one way or the other what is going on, but obviously this (at least on the surface) looks pretty horrific for MS's image - however, with out the facts, i have no clue whether that is warranted or not. I'm aware that MS aren't saints either, so neither would i die of shock if they were being unreasonable in this situation."
Without the full details of what happened, it's possibly to prevent similar cases even gettint to trial. Which does make me feel a little sick inside, but again, i think this is a whole thread of nothing without the facts.
"I don't know enough about this case to say one way or the other what is going on, but obviously this (at least on the surface) looks pretty horrific for MS's image - however, with out the facts, i have no clue whether that is warranted or not. I'm aware that MS aren't saints either, so neither would i die of shock if they were being unreasonable in this situation."
Without the full details of what happened, it's possibly to prevent similar cases even gettint to trial. Which does make me feel a little sick inside, but again, i think this is a whole thread of nothing without the facts.
InterMoniker
Member
Your right I'm not a judge and of coarse I don't have the reports of the fire investigation team at hand........Psychotext said:
But it sounds like the power cord started the fire to me.
Fair enough.DCharlie said:
Psychotext
Member
But that's the thing, we don't have that information and people are using this case to further their own agendas. That said, I have a feeling Microsoft know something as their standard OP would be to bury something like this before it hit the news if it had any merit.Onix said:
But as I said before, none of us know the details so flying off at the handle is a little premature.
[For the record, I'll be the first to call Microsoft out for their disgusting behaviour if it turns out they even had a hint that this case was genuine.]