4 ms·
This apology is not some amazing achievement; this is simply what they were supposed to do. I'm not ready to heap a ton of praise on a major company just for f
by _pius 17y ago
This apology is not some amazing achievement; this is simply what they were supposed to do.
I'm not ready to heap a ton of praise on a major company just for following basic ethics and PR in the wake of a scandal they caused. Just how low of a bar are we trying to set here?
- city41 17y agoMicrosoft didn't cause any scandal, the contractor they hired did. Yes, of course, MS is responsible; but MS was also a victim here.
- caffeine 17y agoNope. MS is responsible, period. People seem to be amputating MS China from MS as a whole, as if somehow MS were screwed by the Chinese or something. It doesn't work that way. It's like if I murdered someone and then got away by saying "I apologize for the misbehavior of my murderous personality - I will not be doing business with it in the future." Doesn't work that way.
- city41 17y agoNo, people are amputating MS from the contractor they hired, because MS was screwed by that contractor. It does work that way.
- _pius 17y agoYou should keep this in context; Plurk is (one of) their prime competitor(s). Microsoft was almost certainly negligent in allowing this to come to market. The fault doesn't fall solely on the contractor. In any case, my point is that Microsoft didn't do anything especially noble by apologizing and taking the site down in the face of blatant plagiarism. If it were noble, you'd be able to name some less noble but at least as self-interested actions Microsoft could have taken. I can't think of one. Microsoft doing practically anything besides what this would have only hurt them more.
- city41 17y agoI'm not talking about Microsoft being noble. I'm talking about Microsoft being screwed by the contractor. Microsoft wanted to compete against Plurk, they hire a contractor to help in this, and now where are they? Their site is suspended indefinitely. Microsoft is now significantly worse off now than before they even started this. Should MS have watched the contractor more closely? Probably. But in the end, it's reasonable to expect that if you hire someone to do work for you, that they're going to do it ethically and legally, even in China. Of course MS takes all responsibility here. That's not even in question. But put yourself in MS's shoes. Yes they are the largest software company in the world, but ignore that. Put yourself in their shoes. You hire someone to do something. That someone does it illegally and deviously, you have no choice but to completely rip out everything they did. You just got screwed. In the end, it even looks like Plurk may benefit from all of this, there is now a lot more people out there that have heard of them.
- _pius 17y agoI'm talking about Microsoft being screwed by the contractor. I don't disagree with that. All I was saying is that the tremendous kudos some people are giving Microsoft for this response seem to be misplaced.