Replies to post #14622 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[InternetPlay]

you must be kidding!

so if ford offers you an incentive to buy a car and you're a chevy owner, you're going to call it a bribe and refuse???

Bad example - I won't take the incentive from Ford even if I were a Chevy owner. But if the offer is from Toyota/Honda/Lexus/VW, I might not be able to refuse if the offer looks like a good "INCENTIVE" to me :-)

Hey, a "bribe" is a "bribe" - some will take it and some won't.

Seriously, if someone goes to your customers and offer them money to quit using your products, do you really feel it's okay? It's a normal business practice? If it is fine for you, it's fine for me, too.

[blauboad]

Bribery: "anything given or promised to induce a person to do something against his wishes"

This is a strange definition. My Scribner-Bantam dictionary does not contain it.

The way I see it, anyone taking money or other compensation in a quid pro quo arrangement is, by definition, doing exactly what he wishes--he wishes to take the money, and is willing to trade duty, integrity, etc. to get it. It's perfectly consensual, both ways.

Short of coercion (which is not bribery) how can anyone be induced to do something against his wishes? Particularly an economically-motivated decision in which personal emotions are not a significant factor--I doubt Sun will be able to keep many customers by applying the old guilt-trip.

Anyway, if you buy the premise of this definition, then HP *would* be guilty of "bribery" as would every advertiser who ever printed a coupon or gave a rebate or a free sample. . . I just don't accept that people or corporations should be viewed as so weak and morally helpless.