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Reuters reports that Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc are arguing in a court filing that witnesses at an upcoming trial over no-hire agreements in Silicon Valley should not be allowed to offer evidence that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was "a bully." "Plaintiffs' only purpose for offering this testimony would be improper to cast Mr. Jobs in a bad light," the companies said in the filing, adding that such evidence has no bearing on whether any defendant entered into an illegal conspiracy. "Free-floating character assassination is improper." Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against the four tech companies in 2011, alleging they conspired to avoid competing for each other's employees in order to avert a salary war. Tens of thousands of workers stand to benefit if they win the case, which could yield over $9 billion in damages. In a joint court filing late last week, the companies told U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh that they were not seeking to bar Jobs' interactions with other witnesses about the no-hire agreements. However, opinions based on other evidence that Jobs bullied rivals should be barred.
All four companies previously settled with the US Department of Justice in 2010 after a DoJ investigation, agreeing not to enter into any future no-hire pacts, but because they settled the case, they argue that any evidence from the DoJ probe should be inadmissible as well. "To admit evidence of the DoJ investigation for any purpose would be unduly prejudicial because the jury might incorrectly assume Defendants have admitted to or been found guilty of antitrust violations."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:31AM
The class action lawsuit is going forward. Of course they want to suppress evidence from the DoJ. The DoJ let them off with a slap on the wrist instead of billions in fines!!
Whoever they bribed at the DoJ into such a weak and flimsy settlement was money well spent. The purpose was to bury it, otherwise they would have to pony up billions.
It's sad that the people can't even depend on the DoJ to support them at all.
Whole thing is disgusting and shameful. All, of it so some rich greedy fucks like Jobs could have a little more money before they died. I don't need hearsay to know he was a bastard. Wasn't all that creative, wasn't all that smart, and was just a cunning bully who could profit from the work of others. I'm not surprised that a man who thought that none of us should control where we could go in cyberspace, but just board his "trains on his tracks", was such a bastard at the end to hurt his employees and try to shave 20-40% of the average worker's salary. Of course leaving the upper end of the executive compensation firmly in place with it's 7-9 digit insanity.
Crap like this makes me want to go watch Fight Club...
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:37AM
So, just to clarify... Steve Jobs was a super cunning bully that wasn't smart or creative.
(Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:44AM
Yes, exactly; he was like the Steve Ballmer of the tech world.
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 1) by No.Limit on Thursday April 17 2014, @12:22PM
Isn't there some kind of 'computer science union' that could set up the necessary pressure to make them pay for this fraud?
I'm not from the US, but in my country there are a few of such unions, but they don't do much.
I also find it quite baffling that engineers, who have a much harder topics to learn than management, earn less money. After all it's in our hands, why don't we do anything about it?
(I'm still at uni, so maybe I'm missing something?)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 17 2014, @01:52PM
After all it's in our hands, why don't we do anything about it?
There's nothing that can be done; whenever you work for someone else, you can expect them to keep the lion's share of the profits, and for you to get paid as little as they can get away with (your wages are subject to market conditions, basic supply-and-demand). The bosses always get paid more than everyone else; that's why they're called "bosses".
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nygmus on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:34PM
Unions in the US have been slowly gutted and demonized over time. There aren't many, if any, high-skill professions that are unionized.
Big business has been waging an anti-union war for decades, and they've more or less won at this point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 17 2014, @05:32PM
Unions at this point in the US are pointless. NAFTA saw to that. We have been hearing the giant sucking sound since.
Am I exploited? Probably. However, relative to the average american pay I make nearly 2.5x. I am not yelling...