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Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

arstechnica.com

51–57 of 57 posts

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a kid. He might have stolen the phone, or it might have been given to him by someone at his school, or he might have found it on the street, on a park bench, or at a public library. We just don't know. "most likely stole the phone" isn't a true statement. He's a kid. Is this how we treat children in this day and age? Is this the civilized thing to do? I don't think so. Anyway, HTC could simply have said: "Thank…

Look, if it's stolen property, it doesn't matter if it's you that stole it or not, my parents taught me to give it back to the owner. That's how it works - "finders keepers" never applies, ever. I don't know, maybe this kid's parents forgot to teach him. But either way, just from a use your brain perspective, if you do have stolen property, the last thing you want to do is go bragging on the internet in a video about…

I have an 8 year-old boy. I taught him thus: "If you didn't earn it, it's not yours, so don't touch it."

Regardless of how unwise or immature his actions were, the company should not have treated him the way they did.

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#52

HTC, if you read this: I bought the HTC Droid when it came out (4 years ago, something like that) and I replaced it with a HTC Droid LTE (and one for my wife too). Please don't do this sort of stupid stuff. I can't in good conscience buy another phone from your company, ever, unless you apologize to the boy, his family, and anyone you went after for leaking the info (reinstate the job of anyone fired over that). For…

That sucks, your wife missed out on what could have been a great experience because of your hang up in 1997. Sure, hold a company to a high moral standard, but I'd expect the same from you, the ability to forgive.

If you get a queasy feeling after you eat something at a local eatery, and you go throw it up at the earliest opportunity, I don't think anyone would fault you for not wanting to go there anymore.

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#53
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not going to be a good week for you, my friend" is definitely threatening, at least to the ear of someone who has watched crime and gangster movies. While these kinds of communciations shouldn't be on Twitter in the first place, HTC would have been far more professional to say "This is a violation of our IP rights and we are commencing aggressive legal action."

The whole point of being a gangster is saying things that are not threatening verbatim in a way that is threatening only in context. Example: "I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse". It has a very different implication when given by your banker versus given by your loan shark.

Actually, these days I think it means the same thing from your banker and your loan shark...

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#54
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you bet. The first rule of business is "the customer's always right." And I fall squarely in their definition of "the customer".

That's a mindlessly simplistic view of it. Do you seriously think HTC corporate hierarchy is going to change their policy on protecting IP and apologize to a person who unlawfully disseminated information on their products just to please the 10's of people that might be outraged over this? You can't please all the people all the time. Sometimes the customer is an idiot not worth your time.

How did he break the law?

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apologize to a person who unlawfully disseminated information on their products // Can you expand on this - I watched the video, what part was unlawful (stating the jurisdiction and legislation/caselaw that apply would help)?

Dude - it's stolen property, plain and simple. Can you think of a jurisdiction where that's not illegal? Lol. The kid either stole it, or he somehow knowingly came into possession of stolen property. Just because you find something, doesn't make it yours. The right thing to do, when you find something that is obviously stolen (and there is no way an NDA phone would not be) is to return it. Stealing something is illeg…

>buying something that's stolen is also illegal //

Usually that's limited to "if you know it, [or should reasonably suspect it] to be stolen".

I can imagine many scenarios in which he used the phone in the video without it being stolen, and more in which it was stolen and he wasn't aware of that.

"Hey my Dad found this phone left at his work, he's taking it to the Police Station in the morning; do you want to have a look at it?"

"I won this phone in a game of poker, want to buy it?"

However, I thought you were claiming it was illegal to make the video.

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kid did nothing wrong (unless he stole the phone, obviously). Even in the article it says "the person who will be held accountable will ostensibly be the party who signed an NDA to get the handset, not Jamkatel himself", which is exactly the way it should be handled. It's not clear that the kid is in trouble at all.

Err, no, the kids seems like a sneaky little ratbag who tried to weasel his way out when he realise he'd done the wrong thing. First, he tried to claim is was fake. Then he said he didn't post the video. Then he claims his parents work for HTC. Sure, HTC's wording is probably not exactly kid gloves, but it sounds like - we're going to sue your sorry a*se to get our stolen property back.

> sneaky little ratbag

Is that the phrase we're using for "scared teenager" these days?

Re: Teen leaks unreleased HTC One successor, and HTC isn't happy

#57

Lots of kids appear to be losing their parents money. Giving your kids access to tech under NDA is like giving your kids access to guys. You are not going to have a good time. You can debate the degree to which this kind of secrecy is warranted, but at the end of the day, when you sign an NDA it is legally binding, and you can't simply blame violating that legal contract with a "Kids will be kids" The phone looks awe…

Well guns kill, NDAs do not.
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