
Billionaire ordered to unlock Martin's Beach but won't be fined $20M - stevenj
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-surfers-billionaire-court-victory-beach-access-20140925-story.html
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michaelangerman
I guess I just don't understand why Vinod would risk his reputation and his
historical legacy on this issue. It seems to me that he and everyone else on
the planet would want to go down in history as a "good guy". Especially
because he has the opportunity with so much money to just do the right thing.
The concept that is most sad to me is how an individual can not see past their
own nose, and not think about all of the other people, in this case surfers
who would get so much enjoyment out of this access. The cool thing about life
is we continue to learn from others mistakes. Clearly, we can all learn that
in life the most important thing to do is always think about others and not
about yourself first.

~~~
pzxc
With all due respect, I don't think that is "clear" at all. If you don't think
about yourself first, you won't be able to help anyone else.

~~~
dreamweapon
Why? There's actually a fairly well established body of sociological research
to this question. It falls under the general rubric of this term known as
"Elite Deviance":

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1381479.Elite_Deviance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1381479.Elite_Deviance)

~~~
pzxc
Never heard of "elite deviance" before, can't figure out how it's relevant
here from the first page of google results, and don't intend to purchase a
book to find out, but...

... it seems self-evident to me that you have to get your own house in order
before it's wise to devote resources to others.

I can't imagine devoting time and energy to caring for the sick if you
yourself weren't healthy. I can't imagine donating money to the poor if you
couldn't feed yourself or your own family. etc

Yet those are logical conclusions to the philosophy that "in life the most
important thing to do is always think about others and not about yourself
first."

~~~
dreamweapon
Sorry; my post was intended not to go under yours, but under its parent. As to
relevance to the the question posted in that message:

Just that the Martin Beach case seems to be an illustration of the fact
despite that in general, the wealthy and powerful seem to feel they have a lot
more lattitude in flouting various forms of what they deem to be mere "social
convention" (you know, pesky things like zoning laws, or 150 years of legal
interpretation of status Mexican land grants after California's admission into
the Union, etc).

So you can count on the fact that if you or I were to decide to squat some
piece of public property (based on our feeling that it was really ours
anyway), our actions would stand for more than a couple of hours before we got
pepper sprayed, put in a chokehold, etc.

But when a billionaire venture capitalist does it -- well the courts take 4
years to think about it before deciding that it was, heck, just a
"misunderstanding" (as the judge in the Martins Beach case decided that
Khosla's property manager acted in "good faith" when they decided to block
access to the beach for 4 years without seeking a permit to do so).

------
torbit
Reminds me of the app the show hidden public gates to access Malibu beaches
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/in-battle-over-
malibu-b...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/in-battle-over-malibu-
beaches-an-app-unlocks-access.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

android version
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.escapeapps...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.escapeapps.knowwhat.app.la.yourmalibubeaches)

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etep
I never knew about this place, but now I'm certain I will be getting in the
water there soon.

~~~
ar7hur
Yeah that's the funniest thing of the story. Before VK tried to block the
beach access only a few surfers came every week, and few people knew about the
beach. Now everybody knows and will flock to it!

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startupfounder
This begs the question: Would you take an investment from Vinod Khosla?

~~~
selmnoo
Question for you: who do you think has the luxury to be able to choose who to
take money from? In my view, not many people. We're all scrambling to put food
on the plates of our children (if not our own). It's extremely difficult to be
picky and choosy about where we take money from... because it's what we need
to survive.

~~~
vdaniuk
Startup founders surely do have the luxury to choose who to take money from.
Really.

Startup is a high-risk project, most people who take high risks have some sort
of acquired resources and/or social support. Also most of startup founders
have skills that are in demand equally from SMBs and corporations. That is
another advantage that founders have.

Also, survive? Doing on average better than 90-95% of people on this planet is
quite far from having problems for securing food for the day and lodging for
the night.

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privong
This is a dupe of [0] from yesterday, with ~100 comments.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8365061](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8365061)

~~~
dang
Thanks.

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mbostleman
Whose liable for personal injury on the beach I wonder?

~~~
fooaway
Yourself.

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executive
a sad day.. won't someone think of the executives?

