

Hasbro offers free merchandise to blogger, sends lawyers instead. - AgentConundrum
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/24/nerf-guns-at-10-paces-hasbro-faces-boycott-after-siccing-lawyers-onto-fan-site/?wpmp_tp=1

======
noonespecial
PR managers rulebook:

1) Don't let your legal department harass your fans. Your lawyers decided what
they _can_ do legally. _You_ decide what they _should_ do in service of your
business goals.

2..n) All of the other rules are just rule 1 again, but with recursive and
geometrically increasing internet mocking added on each time you break it
again.

~~~
rogerbinns
> your legal department

It wasn't Hasbro's legal but an outside firm. Legal firms make money by taking
actions (eg writing letters) and billing hours of "work" they have done. It is
in their interest to do as much of these as possible.

I have also been threatened in the same way by lawyers working for LG. Instead
of just asking me where I got the "confidential" information I posted (it was
posted to usenet and some websites) they came down on me and delivered stuff
to my employer claiming that me and "my accomplices at a carrier" had stolen
it.

I pointed out to the lawyer that he was an unpleasant person, I would have
told him or anyone else who asked where the information come from (but not
provide training on how to use google) and that shooting first and then asking
questions was a stupid way of operating. I was threatened with lawsuits etc,
so I told him to go ahead and also to make sure that LG knew he was being an
idiot on their behalf. More blustering and threats.

Then I get a call from LG with the lawyer on the line where the LG person was
actually pretty decent and it was obvious they had no idea what the lawyer was
doing. I told them that if they apologised then I'd happily tell them exactly
what I would have told them if they had just asked nicely in the first place
and delete the information (which of course could still be readily found all
over using Google).

So they said they would and I kept up my end of the deal. They then proceeded
to not actually apologise.

(I ran an extremely popular site for a particular LG cell phone helping many
fans. The "confidential" information was what the changes were in each
firmware update. It was rather boring stuff but there were fairly frequent
updates so naturally people wanted to know what the changes were each time.)

TLDR: So I have learned my lesson. Lawyers are worthless scum and you should
never believe a word they say. You cannot expect them to behave within the
bounds of human decency. And they get to bill someone for every hour they act
like pricks.

~~~
noonespecial
I learned that myself when I was contacted by a trademark attorney about a
potential violation of a trademark of a company that we were friends and
partners with. I called the company directly, got the CEO on the line and
asked WTF. He didn't even remember the law firm. They had used it to file a
trademark years earlier.

The law firm filed with ICANN and took a domain name that we had that I had
freely offered to our partners whenever they were ready to use it. I tried to
transfer the domain to the partner but the lawyer had already taken it, and
held it hostage for the payment of the legal bill! They still have it.

You have to be very clear with lawyers where their work ends or they'll make-
work you to get a few more hours and make you look like an ass in the process.

------
pmr_
Reading the communication makes me feel sad for the poor guy. He believes he
is talking to people which feel responsible for their actions or the
corporation they work for. He scrambles to produce a complete picture and
tries to argue that the company is losing money through the process. All his
mails will just drown in a corporate maze of diffused responsibility and mis-
communication. It's really just a huge real-life reenactment of Brazil.

~~~
noonespecial
Large companies should have a dedicated department that has the sole purpose
of not making the company look like an ass. Any action like this would have to
be cleared by the "department of not making us look like asses" before it can
be undertaken.

Someone, somewhere in the company has got to have the ability to say, "wait,
no, that would make us look like giant asses."

Also any employee who began to feel that what he/she was doing was becoming
slightly more posterior than anterior could defer to the Dept of NMULLA.

~~~
waqf
That department is called PR. The problem is that they can be rendered
dysfunctional by the same forces as can any department.

~~~
noonespecial
The problem with this is that most of the time PR is "the guys that make the
ads and spin the bad news to the press". A kind of side-entity that has narrow
scope.

They are not in the critical path when asshattery flows out of legal, through
management, and spills into the public space.

~~~
waqf
I agree completely. In this case the force that has rendered them
dysfunctional is called "being sidelined by senior management".

------
delsarto
Simpsons already did it ...

    
    
      Wiggum: I mailed these bogus prize certificates to every scofflaw in
              Springfield. When they show up for their free motor boats we arrest
              them and beat them to the full extent of the law.
       Eddie: So the hook is baited.
         Lou: Nice metaphore Eddie!
      Wiggum: Yeah, good work, Eddie!
    

<http://www.snpp.com/episodes/5F05>

~~~
covercash
Not really an appropriate comment for HN. This isn't reddit.

~~~
mcantor
I disagree on the first point. I do love a good Simpson's reference.

~~~
chc
And I love my cats, but I hope you'll agree that cat photos are not germane. I
have many interests outside the scope of this site, and I'm sure you do too.
That doesn't mean we should try and drag this site toward the lowest common
denominator. Different sites _should_ be different. More homogeneity is not
what the Internet needs.

------
christoph
This could go down as a lesson in the first chapter of bad internet P.R. 101.

I can't understand how Hasbro or their legal firm could get it so wrong. If
their legal firm is to blame for this, they should be fired on the spot.

~~~
Animus7
> I can't understand how Hasbro or their legal firm could get it so wrong.

I take it you haven't experienced the innards of a huge company before.

This is the classic stink of a broken management onion. Maybe I'm jaded but I
don't find this kind of corporate bullshit surprising anymore.

------
dvdhsu
Reminds me of what Valve did to Axel Gembe.

[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-
sto...](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-stole-half-
life-2-article)

Basically, Gembe hacked in to Valve's servers and obtained Half Life 2's
source code. Roughly half a year later, after Valve had given up on the case,
Gembe admitted to it later in an e-mail to Valve. After quizzing him on the
attack vectors used, Valve conducted a phone interview, then wanted an in-
person interview, stating they wanted to offer him a job. The latter would be
in Seattle, where they actually planned to arrest him.

------
pdubs
30 seconds in I got a big "give me your email address" popup blocking the
story...makes it difficult to read.

~~~
AgentConundrum
I barely notice those anymore. Something pops up, I hit ESC and it's gone.

I don't know who they're targeting with those things though. Do they really
think that a lot of people will come to a site for the first time, then decide
to hand over their email/sign up/whatever after a grand total of five seconds
on the page?

Have there been any studies done on this?

~~~
sskates
Yes, their A/B testing likely shows it's effective over not showing a popup
for harvesting email addresses.

~~~
LiveTheDream
I'd be surprised if they actually A/B tested it. Either way, the popup
probably did increase the number of email address they got. However, this came
at what cost to the bounce rate?

------
staunch
So glad the internet gives people a fighting chance at stopping this kind of
bullying.

------
pavel_lishin
> Aloysius T. Dudefella

Is this a reference that we're supposed to be familiar with, or is it for an
Australian audience, or for Nerf fans?

~~~
elliottcarlson
A 2 second Google search reveals that he is indeed Australian, and seems to
participate in Nerf related "tag" games. So a little of both, would be the
answer.

~~~
flexd
That is an excellent name regardless. I thought it was made up until I tried
searching for it.

------
Metapony
You think that's bad? Willie Wonka sent Slugworth after those Golden Ticket
winners...

