A Tale of Two Cultures: AOL & Sony

Filed in archive Commentary , Companies , Society & Public Policy on August 23, 2006

Recent news highlights that there are good guys and bad guys in the corporate world. Shit happens. No major music companies are pure. All have settled for millions of dollars in the radio payola lawsuits. It's what they do afterward that counts. Their actions demonstrate integrity and earn trust. Today we look at two entertainment-technology giants. AOL Time Warner and Sony.

Companies have no moral obligation. But you can vote with your purchases. Let your consumer and business dollars reflect the behavior that you support.

GOOD: AOL Time Warner. AOL vaulted into the news with the release of 19 million web searches from 600,000 users that contained personal data. In response they fired the CTO and two employees.

BAD: Sony is a continuing disaster for consumers. We've covered their spyware CDs (1, 2) and artist and agent fraud.

Now it turns out that Sony is the supplier of Dell's defective batteries. They knew the contaminated batteries would overheat a year ago. But Sony decided to wait and do nothing until catastrophic battery failures forced the Dell recall. The owners of burning and exploding laptops everywhere are thankful.