Crazy Frog emasculates Verisign earnings | The Register

It just seems completely fitting that Verisign is now reaping the rewards of their efforts.

I've long maintained that in order to affect change in business you need to hit business where it counts - in the bottom line. Where it may have been part of the business plan to encounter and pay certain fines for pushing the boundaries of the law in order to make a fast £ - it probably wasn't in the business plan to affect the parent companies stock.

In a similar line of thinking I have often promoted the idea of "proportionate fines" for those breaking the law. i.e.; if Joe's Ringtones breaks a law and is fined £15,000 it could put Joe out of business. If Jamba breaks a law and is fined £15,000 it's barely a rounding error. I support the concept of fines that are proportionate the size of the entity. i.e.; Violators will be fined 30% of gross margin -- something hefty enough to make them think twice before the sail close to the wind.

I'm perfectly ok with the entrepreneurial spirit and the idea of pushing the edges as much as possible, but not at the expense of the very consumers from which I hope to make a living. This idea of rewarding bad behavior (in allowing companies to profit excessively) has got to be stopped.

And before I go completely off-topic and start ranting about the people who will peel an orange on a bus and throw the rinds on the floor and see nothing wrong with it -- I'll sign off.