Saturday, December 16, 2006
Hasidic Jews Reject Evil Text Messaging, Sprint Service - Cell Phone M'Ishar saga
Plaintiffs: Yeshiva Yagdil Torah, a New York Corp. doing business as Vaad Harabbonim Letikshoreth
Defendants: Sprint Solutions Inc.; Sprint P.C.S.; Sprint Nextel Corp.; Sprint Communications Co.
Accusation: In 2005, a group of rabbis formed a council to find a way Hasidic Jews could use cell phones without getting exposed to soul-corrupting text messages and spam. They enlisted the help of Sprint Nextel in developing something called a Kosher Phone: a so-called "plain vanilla" voice phone that would preclude the very possibility of going online, and the attendant temptations. Of course, it didn't work.
One would think this could be easily accomplished by using older-model phones, but one would, apparently, be wrong. After a year of negotiations and $150,000 spent, Sprint acquiesced and issued a limited batch of phones with text-messaging functions blocked and SIM cards taken out. Then, horror: "Some users reported instances in which devices had the ability to send and receive text messages." The lawsuit charges that Sprint, somewhat understandably nervous about the commercial prospects of this retarded (in the very literal sense) technology, went behind the rabbis' back and switched the texting functions back on.
BONUS: The complaint doesn't waste its time before running afoul of Godwin's Law, in an extremely convoluted manner to boot. See if you can follow this: Vaad is saying that Sprint has said that Vaad was comparing Internet spam to the Holocaust. Vaad says it would never stoop to this kind of rhetoric.
Read the lawsuit
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2006/12/sprint_to_hasidic_jews_what_r.html
Plaintiffs: Yeshiva Yagdil Torah, a New York Corp. doing business as Vaad Harabbonim Letikshoreth
Defendants: Sprint Solutions Inc.; Sprint P.C.S.; Sprint Nextel Corp.; Sprint Communications Co.
Accusation: In 2005, a group of rabbis formed a council to find a way Hasidic Jews could use cell phones without getting exposed to soul-corrupting text messages and spam. They enlisted the help of Sprint Nextel in developing something called a Kosher Phone: a so-called "plain vanilla" voice phone that would preclude the very possibility of going online, and the attendant temptations. Of course, it didn't work.
One would think this could be easily accomplished by using older-model phones, but one would, apparently, be wrong. After a year of negotiations and $150,000 spent, Sprint acquiesced and issued a limited batch of phones with text-messaging functions blocked and SIM cards taken out. Then, horror: "Some users reported instances in which devices had the ability to send and receive text messages." The lawsuit charges that Sprint, somewhat understandably nervous about the commercial prospects of this retarded (in the very literal sense) technology, went behind the rabbis' back and switched the texting functions back on.
BONUS: The complaint doesn't waste its time before running afoul of Godwin's Law, in an extremely convoluted manner to boot. See if you can follow this: Vaad is saying that Sprint has said that Vaad was comparing Internet spam to the Holocaust. Vaad says it would never stoop to this kind of rhetoric.
Read the lawsuit
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2006/12/sprint_to_hasidic_jews_what_r.html
Comments:
Rosenberg looking what to do??
Phones are disconnected, He never paid a bill and now he is sueing Sprint?
What a joke!!!!!!!!!
Phones are disconnected, He never paid a bill and now he is sueing Sprint?
What a joke!!!!!!!!!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: December 16, 2006 11:00 PM
: December 16, 2006 11:00 PM
Just a way to make a few bucks. Chillul Hashem.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 10:07 AM
: December 17, 2006 10:07 AM
What a bunch of loosers! I am starting to think that Rabbi Norman Lamm was correct when refferring to such people as CAVEMEN!!!!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 11:50 AM
: December 17, 2006 11:50 AM
i thought the phone just didn't have internet
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 12:16 PM
: December 17, 2006 12:16 PM
"Rosenberg looking what to do??"
Hitech 2000's got something to do?
Hmmmmm
Hitech 2000's got something to do?
Hmmmmm
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 2:30 PM
: December 17, 2006 2:30 PM
My comments, in no particular order:
(A) This whole thing is a hilarious farce!
(B) It's a simple, ordinary, garden-variety breach of contract, probably rooted in multiple miscommunications. I am not an engineer, but have had many, many occasions to interact with engineers, starting with my own father, then as a contracting officer for the Dept. of Defense, and now as an attorney whose clients are engineers who have legal issues with their technology. The problem is resolvable, PROVIDED THAT the parties want to resolve it. The question thus boils down to whether Yeshiva Yagdil Torah is interested in resolving the matter, or whether it wants to complicate things.
(C) Per the events recounted in the Complaint, it seems that YYT itself is very technologically advanced, having communicated extensively via e-mail, including receiving (and presumably viewing) a PowerPoint presentation from Sprint. The YYT people are not such Luddites as they would have us believe.
(D) My wife got me my first cellular phone 2 years ago for Chanukah. I may have used it a grand total of 25 times to date. Notwithstanding the contention in Paragraph 20 of the complaint that "almost no one over a certain age is considered a participant in modern life today without at least a cellular telephone on his hip or in her purse," I can do quite well without a cell phone (unless I am traveling out of town, or picking up my wife at the airport). I ENJOY being unaccessible.
(E) It is noted that the technological innovation known as the printing press caused great consternation amongst the rabbis when it first came into vogue.
(F) At one point in time, my son, then 12 years old, was commuting almost 2 hours each way every day to his yeshiva in NYC. The decision my wife and I made to give him a cell phone was met with great incredulity and alarm from certain rabbinical quarters. We were vindicated on September 11, 2001, however, when the Muslim attack disrupted all sorts of communications. But because our son's cell phone service was based on Long Island and not in NYC, his was one of the few cell phones that still worked. Most of the other people had cell phone services which were based upon antennae that had been mounted on the roofs of the World Trade Center towers.
(G) Never mind the El Al boycott! Let's see which rabbis will call a Sprint boycott -- and how many of their followers will actually comply with it!
(A) This whole thing is a hilarious farce!
(B) It's a simple, ordinary, garden-variety breach of contract, probably rooted in multiple miscommunications. I am not an engineer, but have had many, many occasions to interact with engineers, starting with my own father, then as a contracting officer for the Dept. of Defense, and now as an attorney whose clients are engineers who have legal issues with their technology. The problem is resolvable, PROVIDED THAT the parties want to resolve it. The question thus boils down to whether Yeshiva Yagdil Torah is interested in resolving the matter, or whether it wants to complicate things.
(C) Per the events recounted in the Complaint, it seems that YYT itself is very technologically advanced, having communicated extensively via e-mail, including receiving (and presumably viewing) a PowerPoint presentation from Sprint. The YYT people are not such Luddites as they would have us believe.
(D) My wife got me my first cellular phone 2 years ago for Chanukah. I may have used it a grand total of 25 times to date. Notwithstanding the contention in Paragraph 20 of the complaint that "almost no one over a certain age is considered a participant in modern life today without at least a cellular telephone on his hip or in her purse," I can do quite well without a cell phone (unless I am traveling out of town, or picking up my wife at the airport). I ENJOY being unaccessible.
(E) It is noted that the technological innovation known as the printing press caused great consternation amongst the rabbis when it first came into vogue.
(F) At one point in time, my son, then 12 years old, was commuting almost 2 hours each way every day to his yeshiva in NYC. The decision my wife and I made to give him a cell phone was met with great incredulity and alarm from certain rabbinical quarters. We were vindicated on September 11, 2001, however, when the Muslim attack disrupted all sorts of communications. But because our son's cell phone service was based on Long Island and not in NYC, his was one of the few cell phones that still worked. Most of the other people had cell phone services which were based upon antennae that had been mounted on the roofs of the World Trade Center towers.
(G) Never mind the El Al boycott! Let's see which rabbis will call a Sprint boycott -- and how many of their followers will actually comply with it!
what nonsense ! a big $$$$ maker what happened with the no internet campaign ,kids kick out of school etc ? Whats on the burner next ? Fax machines,mp3 players, game boys ??
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 8:55 PM
: December 17, 2006 8:55 PM
I read the papers where does Hitech 2000 come into the picture
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 17, 2006 10:34 PM
: December 17, 2006 10:34 PM
One big chilul hashem.
Wonder which rebbe gave permission to go to court.
What I read in the lawsuit they are masering on all the local cell stores.
What happened to bais din?????????
Wonder which rebbe gave permission to go to court.
What I read in the lawsuit they are masering on all the local cell stores.
What happened to bais din?????????
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 18, 2006 3:49 AM
: December 18, 2006 3:49 AM
Some of these so-called Rabbi's should be tried and executed for corruption of the Jewish faith!!!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 18, 2006 5:26 PM
: December 18, 2006 5:26 PM
orthodox are doing a great job looking stupid on the news. keep up the good work.
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Comment Credit ---This article posted by : December 18, 2006 8:28 PM
: December 18, 2006 8:28 PM
