Saturday, January 21, 2012

More on Those Dirty Tricks

This blog seems to be tipping more and more into the business, as opposed to the art, of animation, but it's hard to avoid when various media industries are conspiring against artists and the public.

I reported earlier (here and here) that Pixar was implicated in an illegal "no poaching" agreement with other high tech firms, meaning that if a Pixar employee applied for a job at Lucasfilm or Apple, those companies would refuse to hire the Pixar employee. Pixar returned the favour by refusing to hire applicants from Lucasfilm or Apple. That violates anti-trust laws. The damage is that it prevents employees from changing jobs or earning higher pay elsewhere. The case is about to go to trial and the Department of Justice has released some evidence that you can read below. For instance, on page 3 you can read that Lori McAdam of Pixar wrote in an internal email:
“I just got off the phone with Danielle Lambert [of Apple], and we agreed that effective now, we’ll follow a Gentleman’s agreement with Apple that is similar to our Lucasfilm agreement.”
TechCrunch - High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation Conference Statement 1/19/2012 - Analysis here: http:/...

(Link via TechCrunch)
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7 comments:

  1. Andy LathamJanuary 21, 2012 12:23 PM

    Wow, I had no idea things like this went on! While it may be a concern for your site to concentrate on the business side of things, it's great for people with less experience in the world to learn of this kind of thing, so thanks!

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  2. Auxul TodingonJanuary 22, 2012 2:09 AM

    I wonder how much of a coincidence it is that Brad Birds eldest works for Apple as a financial analyst.

    I guess these rules & agreements only apply to the fools and the folks up the top with the real connections make up their own to feather their nests and look after their own clan.

    It’s funny, in a lot of ways the world is still very Medieval. Still all about Empires and Emperors, Lords & Ladies, their money and their spheres of influence.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2012 2:34 PM

    Or that two of Lasster's sons work for Disney?

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2012 5:07 PM

    Catmull's daughter did too… but hey, that’s just the way of the world.
    Who are any of us kidding, if we were in their position we’d probably do so as well.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2012 9:40 AM

    Lori McAdams, head of Pixar hr was poached from LucasFilm by Jim Morris, president of Pixar and former head of LucasFilm. Morris was poached from LucasFilm by Ed Catmull, founder of Pixar and former Luxasfilm employee.

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2012 11:32 PM

    Of course once they hired EACH OTHER at high salaries and big bonuses, they colluded to prevent anyone else from doing so.

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  7. Giggle*Snort*January 28, 2012 12:01 AM

    "If I were a rich man, yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum" they all say.

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