“At least five employees of Apple’s retail stores have been fired after downloading copies of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard from the Internet that were distributed to developers at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference two weeks ago. ‘Dozens’ more also face termination,” Think Secret reports.
“The axed staffers had apparently been overheard discussing their acquisition of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard with their co-workers, prompting Apple ‘corporate’ in Cupertino to investigate the matter and fire the employees,” Think Secret reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not very smart for Apple retail employees to be doing such things.
On the subject of Apple’s high standards for employees — maybe I’ve just been real unlucky in my choice of Apple stores — King of Prussia, Pa and Troy, Mi — but the only reason it was an enjoyable experience was the great products on display — the employees, for the most part (I did have ONE good experience at KofP), were not helpful and full of incorrect information.
“as if saying it over and over again made it true or proved it.”
Don’t be too hard on ‘im, he’s just caterpultin the propergander.
“See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
I’m sure they’ll survive.
Frankly, who wants those minimum wage jobs, anyway? Even if they get to call themselves “geniuses.”
The headline has some typos. There should be a space before the s in firings followed by quad after the s.
Wholesale firings, though cheaper than retail firings, would have been worse.
From the way it is written, it sounds like they were downloading the software. They didn’t post it or distribute it online.
Then employees should also be allowed o download and view child porn on Apple Store computers too, right? After all they’re not posting or distributing it…
Why would you fire employees that were excited about a new product and wanted to try it out.
Because everyone in the business, especially Apple employees, knows the WWDC release is “eyes only”, and anyone with any sense knows a copy on a file sharing site is illegal!
Downloading pirated software onto Apple’s own hardware in Apple’s own stores is beyond moronic. Sure you can get a sneak peek but so what, it won’t bring the release version out any sooner.
“All of us know that we violated our NDA and ethics policy. Therefore, because we had the character to tell the truth and to face the consequences of our actions, we were terminated,” said one of the fired employees,…”
Wrong. If these people had any integrity or intelligence they would not have violated their promises or code of ethics. These ex-apple employees are just plain stupid and contemptible people. No sympathy here for these losers.
Apple Retail ReJect, I couldn’t agree more. I was invited to an Apple Retail employment opportunity event (or whatever) and I felt like I was in a beauty pageant. I was quickly reminded of why I stopped working in retail about 15 years ago.
Stealing, on any level, is stealing. I am a sales manager at a car dealership, and let me tell you, if I caught someone stealing anything, they would be terminated.
Any company which distributes a gazillion betas then gets surprised when some copies show up in the wild is just stupid.
If we assume that Apple is not stupid, then they can hardly be surprised that anyone who wants the beta will get it.
If they want to fire employees for violating their terms of employment, sure that’s within their rights, but more likely they’re just trying to create some air of secrecy and mystery around Leopard (See the lengths we’re going to to protect this awesome technology) and these guys are just victims in that process. It won’t do anything more or less to stop the beta falling into the hands of anyone who wants to see it.
Secondly you sacrifice a few retail employees, who really don’t matter. you send a message to those in the company who might actually know something about some secrets but be harder to replace to keep their mouths shut, rather then have to fire them, sending them into the arms of competitors.
As for the secret sauce, that’s just a myth to make Mac users feel better about how pathetic Leopard’s updates look (There’s something else coming, really there must be, that can’t be all there is…)
But think about it. If you want developers to use features in an OS, you need to tell them about it and give them beta versions that they can use to develop and test against. So any “Secret Sauce” can only be in areas that developers don’t need to know anything about, which means not the O/S but in apps bundled with it.
Well-stated TheConfuzed1. I am especially tired of some people thinking they are entitled to have something for nothing just because it is on the Internet”s.” Unless the author/owner explicitly claims it is free, then anything else is simply stealing. This includes, software – beta or not, music, movies and other art. Seriously people, wake up! This is the crap mentality that is destroying our society!
This is the crap mentality that is destroying our society!
And furthermore, Carthage should be destroyed!”
From duper, “… Even if they get to call themselves “geniuses.””
Some freakin’ geniuses.
The morons were fired, not so much because they violated their NDA, but because they were stupid enough to brag about it!
Frankly, getting rid of people that stupid is a good thing.
mw: cannot. As in I cannot believe how phenomenally stupid some people are.
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66 baby