The RIAA. 'Nuff said.

-Zeke

Definitely Sony, and for a while now. Mostly because of their insistence on coming up with proprietary add-ons where perfectly good standards already exist, then gouging you for the parts (eg Memory Stick). Then a laptop I had that they refused to release W2k drivers for because they wanted you to buy a new laptop instead. Eventually I did - and guess which manufacturer didn't get on the shortlist ? And latterly because of the whole DRM nonsense from the music division.

I've actually heard a lot of people say this - that the music business idiocies are affecting their decisions in buying from the consumer electronics business. I've always been a big fan of their industrial design aesthetic, but now there are only two Sony items in my house, and both are low cost ones which will not be replaced by Sony units when they expire.

Mark

what single company are you not patronizing for political reasons?


Geico insurance because of their agressive lobbying to make radar detectors illegal.

tanstaafl.

Nestle, for dumping contaminated milk powder on the starving in Africa, and getting paid for it on a UN/UNESCO supply contract, and their attitude after they were caught doing it.

Trouble is, in this country (yUK), they are quietly, and not so quietly, buying up all the major brands that I have previously enjoyed: to stick to my guns, I really have to grit my teeth sometimes - and sound like an ar****le for refusing chocolates when my friends offer them It gets easier if you think about the number of children with perforated bowels as a result of consuming the stuff (they didn't have much choice - their mothers gave it to them out of a bottle), and the number they killed, too.

Quote:
Their environmentally destructive history is unimaginable.

Remember the Exxon Valdeez? Not a drop of their petrol has been burnt in any of my cars since.

Vote with your (economic) feet

For me it has to be De Beers. Through fantastic marketing they have convinced every woman in the western world that a man needs to buy you a diamond to show he loves you.

They hold such a tight hold on the mining of diamonds people at the bottom are left in poverty, while De Beers themselves hold huge stocks in reserve to restrict supply of larger stones, so increasing the price.

Straight fact: I will never buy a De Beers diamond. If I am to buy a diamond I will need proof of it origin first!

Cheers

Cris.

I loved their "We're out of big diamonds? Well, it's all about total carat weight of tiny diamonds" about-face, too.

Oh what a delimma. Imagine the Super Bowl being, Exxon's Superbowl xxxieeee!