Three Foxconn Employees Charged With Leaking iPad 2 Design

[Silverfist]

You know its very sad that these people who work for literally peanuts,...

Stopped reading at this point.

Literally.

.

 

[iSee]

Yeah, fancy that, a nation that still believes in crime and punishment.

"Can't do the time? Don't do the crime".

I 100% agree!!! Criminal laws and processes are always correct and just!!!

1. If a law is passed criminalizing certain actions, thoughts or beliefs then there's no doubt that those actions, thoughts or beliefs are crimes.
2. The punishment for a crime is always correct. Punishments are never too extreme nor too lax. Whatever process that has determined the punishment for a particular crime cannot be questions. Because, well, you know: "Can't do the time? Don't do the crime."

 

[BJMRamage]

Without knowing more information this is purely speculative:

Perhaps it was information that7 was not allowed outside the factory. Perhaps they knew this was the case.
Perhaps they stole this info from the company for profit. Perhaps they "know" they are not supposed to do this.

Low wages, bad working conditions and the like are NOT reasons/excuses for committing a breach of contract/crime.
The good news is Foxconn has much better working conditions than many other factories in China. They do not HAVE to sleep under their working table during off hours. They have rooms/albeit shared ones, they have limited access to the internet/email via company resources. I am sure their conditions are worse than many on here, but this is not an excuse.

It is like saying the gas prices are too high so you simply stole the gas. Stealing is wrong….breach of contract/NDA is very wrong to the employee and the company who then has this under their belt.

 

[rtheb]

The leak of the new design is a huge competitive advantage for those receiving the information.

The iPad 2 design rendered most accessories for the iPad obsolete and accessory manufacturers are still scrambling to redesign cases, stands, et. al for the new iPad 2.

Imagine being ahead of the curve and having your accessories ready for sale at launch.

I understand Apple's position.

 

[weing]

The good news here is there will soon be three hearts, six kidneys and a few sets of lungs and livers now available for transplant.

 

[whooleytoo]

A significant amount of the news on this site (arguably, the most interesting news) is a result of the leaking of trade secrets.

So what's our view? "Give us all the interesting info, then arrest the people who leaked it to us!" ? Doesn't that seem a tiny bit... hypocritical?

 

[sphoenix]

I really hate reading posts from people who literally no concept of what it might be to be in another persons shoes especially in another culture and country. Your experience is nothing like their experience and making self righteous statements about what's right and wrong and what your job is like and how you keep secrets, do your job, blah blah, is just plain ignorant.

I feel ya. It's a mad world...

 

[C00rDiNaT0r]

Oh yeah!?!?! Very honor-bound I'm sure! For a country that is number 1 in the world for software piracy and other forms of theft of intellectual property they have a very strange way of showing it.

On the other hand, Apple knew when they decided to manufacture their products in China, what they were bargaining for!

As Joker says, "They're only as good as the world allows them to be." Why should Apple "know" it will happen in China, and not anywhere else in the world?

 

[illbeback]

Wow... rip someone off and you go to jail.
Nothing NEWSWORTHY about that!

 

[syhr]

If anyone doesn't like their job, they can quit, they can stick it out, or they can try to improve things. What they cannot do is commit crimes. And who says that these crimes where committed because someone was unhappy with their job? More likely just a case of greed.

I agree with all of that except the greed part. Yes, it was wrong of them to leak this information, but I think the assumption that it was down to greed may be wrong. There's a big chance that the people who leaked these secrets are living in poverty, and it may have been out of desperation to support their families that they took the money, not just to get a bit more money for a nice holiday.

 

[farmboy]

Sure boss, because good paying jobs are so plentiful and easy to get I should just walk off my job whenever I get the urge...

Any more words of wisdom for the masses Copernicus?

1. As adults, you're free to make your own decisions, stupid (like stealing) or brilliant, high risk or low risk, but you have to live with the consequences. Seems fair enough to me.

2. There are probably a million towns all over the world where there is a major employer and little else, including here in the USA, and people lack the means to relocate or the skills to get a different job. If you have a magic plan to make good-paying jobs available everywhere, please share, since it will be the very first time in the history of the planet.

 

[tlevier]

HumanCENTiPAD!

Anyone? No one?

 

[vincenz]

Hope those three got a good payout before getting caught.

 

[Slayerboym88]

... they are corporate savages who are willing to strike down any human being that gets in their way to make a buck.

The corporate savages also employ 50,000 people and have enabled 100s of app developers use their forum to create new ideas that employ more people. Same goes for Foxconn, who without Apple's contract, would not have the resources to hire the thousands of Chinese people to give them even the meager salaries they do receive.

Shame it's so cost prohibitive to hire people in America to do the job. Could have avoided the whole situation.

 

[scoobydoo99]

But don't get me wrong I am all for punishing poor people they do deserve what they get. (sarcasm just in case)

Being poor doesn't justify criminal activity.

 

[C00rDiNaT0r]

HumanCENTiPAD!

Anyone? No one?

hah there just happens to be 3 of them..

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Are you suggesting they will get the electric tablet?

I hear they don't get the tablet anymore. They are just shocked by high prices now.

 

[notabadname]

too bad 3 people will have to die in a chinese jail to protect apple's trade secrets (or rather, secrets that were intended to be revealed a few months later)

Yeah, real shame people get arrested for breaking the law

 

[neko girl]

I agree with all of that except the greed part. Yes, it was wrong of them to leak this information, but I think the assumption that it was down to greed may be wrong. There's a big chance that the people who leaked these secrets are living in poverty, and it may have been out of desperation to support their families that they took the money, not just to get a bit more money for a nice holiday.

As much as you may like to think so, two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[AppleScruff1]

So what happens when the might of Apple comes crashing down on you - public execution at dawn?!

They should be punished, not executed, but this is China.

They leaked the designs of a consumer product. Big who cares. It's not like they leaked nuclear submarine schematics. Personally I just think they should be dismissed. Anything more is heavy-handed. Can't believe how many people are advocating the death penalty here - it's an iPad - in the grand scheme of things you probably couldn't leak a design more trivial, or of less importance. Business shouldn't stand in the way of basic human rights.

They should be fired as a minimum punishment.

A significant amount of the news on this site (arguably, the most interesting news) is a result of the leaking of trade secrets.

So what's our view? "Give us all the interesting info, then arrest the people who leaked it to us!" ? Doesn't that seem a tiny bit... hypocritical?

This site is hypocritical in many ways. Rumors come from leaks.

 

[chipchen]

I'd bet good money that they didn't even find the right people... they probably got pressure from Apple, so they either found some people to take the fall (and paid their families off) or just found some scapegoats that look good enough for the fall.

The real people are probably just laying low right now... they'll get caught eventually though... cause they got a taste....

 

[shartypants]

Must have been a tough case to solve, har har har.

 

[(marc)]

I wonder who voted this story "Positive"...

 

[tinman0]

It's not that they shouldn't be punished, it's the concern that the punishment in China will be excessive for this nonviolent crime.

Then take it up with the Chinese, and not Apple.

Apple are not responsible for local laws, they may certainly put pressure on suppliers (eg Foxconn and the suicide thing), and Apple have certainly got very involved with suppliers who employ children/falsify employment records/etc, as was demonstrated recently when several suppliers had their contracts canceled.

However, Apple have every right to expect confidentiality from their suppliers (as does every business), and Apple are not responsible for the individuals when they are caught out.

And despite China being barbaric, I sincerely doubt these two guys will be executed. But if they are, then they knew the penalty - lets just hope the bribe was big enough.

 

[Yamcha]

Whoever made the decision to charge someone for leaking the design is an idiot, honestly it's not like these guys are making any good money..

They've probably been working hard their whole lives and earning hardly anything, charging them only makes the situation worse, I just don't see how anyone could do that to people who are in this circumstance..

It's just a ****ing design that got leaked, I just don't see the justification for charging anyone who leaked the design..

And anyway its not like it shows you the blueprint to the iPad 2's design, all you see the backing for the case, thats it.. Infact if you look at the case you'll find it looks nothing like the actual iPad2, the case is pretty ugly, all leaking it did was tell everyone where the ports for example are located, even then it doesn't really give us any knowledge on what ports they are..