> what makes companies think some legal mumbo jumbo that isn't worth its bytes on a drive will somehow do?
While they may "think" that officially I do not believe they do internally. Fact: Enforcement takes years. Fact: The fines are often tiny. Fact: They make billions while this goes through court. Conclusion: They have every bit of motivation to act dumb while raking in the money.
Yep. The whole thing reminds me of professional wrestling, with one person blatantly cheating, the entire public watching it happen, as the "referee" is pretending to be distracted by something else. So the public is going crazy, screaming at the ref to look over there, all agreeing to pretend the match isn't a scripted act performed by a single party.
And the entire public just stays, acting like they don't have something better to do.
...all the while, giving more time for lobbyists to harangue ministers for relaxation/rescinding of the regulations and (maybe this is just my cynicism causing me to see ghosts but) to push PR that is explicitly anti-regs
Until senior management and boards of directors are personally accountable for deliberate law-breaking it will be seen not just as a business expense but also a useful barrier to entry smaller competition.
"It was illegal. You knew it was illegal. Your claim of ignorance is not a defense because it was your job to know that so you can have a stretch of a few weeks in the slammer with a criminal record to go with that."
Yes caution needs to be taken not to overreach on the enforcement and sentencing just like it does for every single other fraud case.
While they may "think" that officially I do not believe they do internally. Fact: Enforcement takes years. Fact: The fines are often tiny. Fact: They make billions while this goes through court. Conclusion: They have every bit of motivation to act dumb while raking in the money.