

Secret unit within News Corp promoted a wave of tech piracy in Australia - NoBorders
http://afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/pay_tv_piracy_hits_news_OV8K5fhBeGawgosSzi52MM

======
mhw
Allegations of similar behaviour in the UK as well:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17494723>

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rbarooah
I wonder whether we need a different presumption of executive responsibility
in these cases. Plausible deniability seems way too weak a defense to permit,
since it allows executives to set up a culture and incentives to encourage
wrongdoing and yet walk away from the consequences if they weren't directly
informed of the specific actions taken.

In a away it's analogous to the 'it wasn't me, it was the algorithm' defense -
'it wasn't me, it was my employees'.

This doesn't mean that executives should necessarily be held personally liable
for the damages caused by their companies, but if they persistently can't keep
their organizations operating within the law, perhaps a period of open public
administration at the company's expense might be a good remedy.

[note: there might be some serious drawbacks to this proposal - it's just a
conjecture since corporate wrongdoing is a serious problem that doesn't seem
to have good solutions yet]

~~~
nikcub
They did that with company financials with Sarbane Oxley. It increased
compliance costs for all companies because of a rogue few.

Let the courts and legal system handle this. Probably too soon to ask for more
regulation.

~~~
rbarooah
I don't see how your comment or Sarbanes Oxley is relevant to what I said.

I didn't suggest more regulation or anything to 'comply' with. I was
suggesting an alternative theory of corporate responsibility, and a remedy
that the courts could apply in the case of detected wrongdoing, not for all
companies.

Am I missing something?

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ajb
There was a big case about this between echostar and NDS in the US, and
canalplus in France as well, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NDS_Group>
(although there seems to be a minor edit war going on on that article, so look
at the history).

~~~
Maxious
That edit war is disgusting... although the current revisionist history echos
how the News Ltd papers are covering these accusations -
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/foxtel-denies-pay-
tv-d...](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/foxtel-denies-pay-tv-dirty-
tricks/story-e6frg996-1226312470663)

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ktizo
I remember when people were burning the cards for On-Digital in the UK. The
new codes would apparently be uploaded within only a few minutes of being
switched over, so it was obvious at the time that it was either someone from
within On-Digital, or someone with extremely good resources.

