Word: ibm
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...This was a strictly legal solution, designed to get the RIAA lawyers off its back at any cost so that Patel wouldn't shut down the service outright. The RIAA was holding all the cards, legally, and Boies knows from his IBM and Microsoft battles how much judges hate arrogant technology companies. So he did what he had to do to keep the site alive in any form...
...Seltzer believes, as does Black, that the Germans could not have operated IBM's machines without the company's help; the technology was just...
...course, not everyone agrees with Seltzer's assessment - least of all IBM. Last week, the company released a statement: "If this book points to new and verifiable information that advances understanding of this tragic era, IBM will examine it and ask that appropriate scholars do the same." But company spokespeople insist that Black's allegations are not new, that historians have long been aware that the Nazis used IBM's tabulating machines. And, spokespeople insist, the company is paying for its mistakes: IBM Germany, formerly Dehomag, has already paid into Germany's government-sponsored initiative to compensate citizens forced...
...Ironically, the lawsuit filed last week against IBM could mean yet another delay for those seeking reparations; German firms participating in the compensation effort have demanded protection against future claims on behalf of victims of the Nazis, and IBM's apparent vulnerability may invigorate those demands...
...Black's book, both of which apply just as easily to today's business climate as to that of 50 years ago. "One, we have to recognize that technology is morally neutral, but how we use it is not. Two, professional zeal and bureaucratic opportunism can easily blind people. IBM wasn't interested in ideology or patriotism; when they developed those punch cards, the company had something they were very proud of. And so they closed their eyes and jumped in. They pretended not to see anything but the business opportunities ahead of them...