An Oasis

Demise of Re-code

Re-code.com, the site that let you print out new barcodes for products with prices you were willing to pay, has been silenced. The threat of legal action, as sadly is often the case, has been enough to prompt the creators of the site to disable its functionality. Is providing the tools an incitement to commit crime? Tell that to the gun makers (whose guns Walmart sells).

Once again, and this is becoming a recurring theme, what do the threats of legal action achieve? Masses of coverage in blogs, news sites, newspapers and tv. It is the same as the fake Puma ads and it's McLibel all over again - when will these people learn?

Truth is that anyone with a PC and a Printer could put together some barcodes and because the stores are paying the cashiers to be little more than robot arms there's not a lot of incentive to even notice discrepancies, much less to destroy their throughput stats (x products beeped / hour) by doing anything about it.

A just society does not exist where he who has the largest pockets can make the legal process cost enough and take long enough to intimidate the defendant into remission with legal documents having never even been served.

Posted by Paul at April 21, 2003 02:31 AM |