VR Company Upload Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit (techcrunch.com) 83
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Upload, formerly UploadVR, the virtual reality startup at the center of a sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit filed earlier this year, has settled the case with its former employee and is aiming to put the ensuing damage behind it. The lawsuit, filed against the startup and its co-founders by former director of digital and social media Elizabeth Scott, alleged that the company had sought to create a "boy's club" environment and described "rampant" sexual behavior in the office, allegations that co-founders Will Mason and Taylor Freeman denied as "entirely without merit." The lawsuit is now over, according to people familiar with the matter, and though the terms of the agreement were undisclosed, some in the virtual reality community feel that the company has dodged a bullet in reaching some conclusion over the litigation.
"The matter has been concluded," was Upload's official statement. Neither Scott, nor her legal counsel, responded to a request for comment for this story. Upload has also released the following statement around the conclusion of the legal case. "Our primary focus at Upload is education, which we believe is the key to growing the mixed reality ecosystem. We are deeply committed to creating an inclusive community to empower the pioneers building the future."
"The matter has been concluded," was Upload's official statement. Neither Scott, nor her legal counsel, responded to a request for comment for this story. Upload has also released the following statement around the conclusion of the legal case. "Our primary focus at Upload is education, which we believe is the key to growing the mixed reality ecosystem. We are deeply committed to creating an inclusive community to empower the pioneers building the future."
Re:Summary of future posts (Score:5, Insightful)
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1. It is real. It's just not the epidemic feminists say it is.
2. It's possible. That's what trials are for. The plaintiffs bring forth evidence of the crime. It is then contested by the defense and deliberated over by a jury. The judge then issues a sentence if the verdict is guilty. Oh wait, right.. SocJus proponents want us to "listen and believe" and submit to feminist kangaroo courts ("rape tribunals") reminiscent of Soviet show trials. It's interesting that these are usually brought forth as civil cas
"Tone at the top" is a thing (Score:1, Flamebait)
Everyone is about to pile in here calling people who can act normally around the opposite sex "SJWs" and similar. But, this behavior is very common at startups, and it almost always starts with the "executives." I'm using quotes because in these cases the executives are usually either fraternity types who just got out of school, or fully-grown man-children. When you give a bunch of glorified salespeople and dealmakers millions of dollars in VC money, they're going to create a club for their friends. It's yo
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They're settled, not litigated. No company's legal team is crazy enough to go to trial on something like this. Especially when it's VC money, they'll just peel off a couple million and throw it at the problem. It sure beats having your company dragged in front of the world every time a new court date comes up in a case that could last years. Large, established companies do this too. It's cheaper for GM to pay a huge settlement and fine than risk damaging their brand over a faulty ignition switch -- especial
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Most lawsuit settlements of this size can allow you to live out your life assuming you can invest carefully.
Meaning there is some pretty serious incentive to file a lawsuit and squeeze out a settlement because as you said, no company's legal team is crazy enough to go to trial on this issue.
This just means in the fabricated case the employer gets fucked and in the genuine case everybody wins and nobody loses, the perpetrators of this behaviour should lose and there's no reason that just because something bad happened to you you are entitled to profit from it.
Of course companies are going to be skeptical about hir
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Yep...I gotta admit, if I had tits, I'd be tempted to try to hit pay dirt like this....dangling that type of money in front of someone is very difficult to resist.
One settlement, set for life....
"Yes your honor, he grabbed my ass, and I'm devastated and can no longer work....."
Re:"Tone at the top" is a thing (Score:4, Insightful)
You're confusing what people say with what they do. Some of the most ardent SJWs are young, wealthy, successful, male progressives in San Francisco, and many of the same group are also lewd
Some people with opinions I don't like live in San Fransisco. Some jerks live in San Fransisco. Ergo everyone in San Fransisco is a jerk.
QED
Checkmake SJWs!
and promiscuous
Promiscuous. adj. nature of a person that is is hateful by reason of having more sex than me and I'm totally not jealous.
I suspect that if you did a survey, you'd find that the vast majority of techies accused of sexual harassment are Democrats and Hillary voters.
Well, if you can't find evidence, just make stuff up.
Re: "Tone at the top" is a thing (Score:1)
Some people I don't like are white supremacists. White supremacists disagree with me. Therefore anyone who disagrees with me is a white supremacist.
(You logic, dipshit)
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Look, ErichTheRed made the claim that "SJWs" are the only ones who "can act normally around the opposite sex". And, of course, it's obviously false, since there are plenty of non-SJWs who "can act normally around the opposite sex".
But I also question whether SJWs "act normally around the opposite sex". SJWs often come from a political culture and a social environment that encourages extramarital sex, promiscuity, single motherhood, and one night stands; that does not seem to promote "normal behavior" toward
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Look, ErichTheRed made the claim that "SJWs" are the only ones who "can act normally around the opposite sex". And, of course, it's obviously false, since there are plenty of non-SJWs who "can act normally around the opposite sex".
No, it's trivially true because that's the definition of "SJW".
Or are you using the other definition of "someone I don't like and by the way I'm a fuckwit"?
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Which part of You're confusing what people say with what they do. did you not understand? The definition of a "SWJ" is someone who advocates social justice, not someone who realizes social justice in their own lives.
People are members of political movements like social justice based on what they say. People often act inconsistent with their stated political beliefs; that is particularly common for people who hold political beliefs that involve p
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The definition of a "SWJ" is someone who advocates social justice, not someone who realizes social justice in their own lives.
No, the definition of SJW is "evil boogeymen" with a side order of "I'm a fuckwit".
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That may be your definition. My definition is "someone who advocates social justice". I simply observe that that this frequently does not coincide with "someone who promotes social justice through their actions".
You keep demonstrating that.
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You can call me a "faggot" (pejorative) or you can call me a "gay man" (neutral); both of them are accurate descriptions of my sexuality. Likewise, "social justice warrior" (pejorative) and "social justice activist" (neutral) describe the same kind of political beliefs, they simply express a different attitude by the speaker.
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That may be your definition
It's the only definition I've seen which is consistent with the general use of the phrase.
My definition is
Well then you're using a different definition from the vast majority who seem to shit themselves about "teh SJW" when someone says perhaps it is not great idea to keep hitting on the only woman in the programming department.
If you're going to complain about something that pretty much only utter fuckwits complain about but have your own private definition then you're going t
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From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
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Dictionary definitions are based on general use. I never see "SJW" used favorably, although there are lots of people in favor of social justice. I see people make stupid claims about SJWs, without bothering to ascertain how many people the claims actually apply to.
Therefore, "SJW" should be translated as "(and I'm an asshole, probably a right-wing asshole)", because that's how it's used and what it means in practice.
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You probably have never seen the terms "totalitarian", "fascist", or "communist" used favorably either, yet when they started out, they were considered positive terms. It's a common phenomenon that left wing ideologies take some positive term and over time turn it into something reprehensible.
"You are a SJW" should be tra
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The definition of a "SWJ" is someone who advocates social justice, not someone who realizes social justice in their own lives.
No, the definition of SJW is "evil boogeymen" with a side order of "I'm a fuckwit".
This,
SJW is a made up term by people who want to use bigoted arguments but demonise those who would point out their bigotry. It's modern origination comes from gamergate, it was used to try and denigrate those who didn't believe in rampant sexism.
Its taken over from "PC", mainly because PC was used so often as a byword for "something I don't like but cant find a rational argument against" that PC has lost all meaning and impact. SJW will soon go the same way as it gives more negative connotations abou
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I would posit that many of the men being taken to court ARE the ones that are acting "normally" around women.
They are acting like men have since the world began, with regards to the sexual game.
The ones with inhibited behavior, are not the norm, but they also don't get sued in
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You're both wrong, fellow ACs
Widespread sexual harassment is a consequence of sexual liberation and the destruction of traditional family structures.
There isn't widespread sexual harassment in the sexually liberated West. You're falling for that other AC's lie that there is.
If anything, it's the opposite. The West is some of the safest place for women and girls on the planet. Better than China. Better than India. Better than much of the Islamic world. The West also offers women the most opportunity and freedom. They are equal under the law, and there are actually laws against treating them unequally based on gender.
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Only until they get married and become fathers; after that, biology generally switches behavior to parental investment in kids.
It's no surprise that as long as men or women have not produced any offspring, their energies are directed towards finding a partner to reproduce with, rather than worrying about the future of the tribe.
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If that were true, then you'd not see all the men (and many women) having affairs, and the high divorce rate, etc.
The drive never stops...hell, my Dad at upper 70's still looks and chats up women while we're out.
It never goes away.
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Does your Dad have prepubescent children right now? Is he chatting up women with prepubescent children? If not, then his actions are consistent with what I said.
The drive to reproduce never stops, but it is temporarily attenuated in most males by the need for parental investment in offspring: fatherhood.
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"(have sexual relations with) and run" (feel free to substitute synonyms for the parenthetical phrase) is a perfectly viable male reproductive strategy in the case of species (like humans) where paternity is uncertain, generally because fertility is not limited to a short obvious cycle. So is staying with a woman, monopolizing her reproductive capability, and trying to get your children to be successful and reproduce, but it's often possible to sneak off for some additional impregnation chances on the si
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Like most mammals, humans have a mix of reproductive strategies. The predominant one is pair bonding and fidelity.
Which i
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And one is pair bonding and some infidelity. You're more likely to have a good child if you have children with multiple partners. Fidelity doesn't seem much of an issue in the matrilineal societies I know of.
And assorted cheating,
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Yes, tiny, marginal societies, and for good reason.
Yes, and most societies traditionally had strong sanctions against premarital sex, marital infidelity and illegitimate children. These days, we encourage and subsidize these destructive behaviors.
Yes:
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This new prudishness from the alt-right and anti-SJWs is interesting. It's part of the nostalgia for an idealized version of the 1950s where women were pure and mainly concerned themselves with looking good to attract a man, and then kept him by cooking, cleaning and giving him children.
I think the thing that they find most attractive is that a woman's worth was defined by her ability to get a good man before they get too old (i.e. under 25). Thus women were somewhat desperate and willing to devote themselv
Re:"Tone at the top" is a thing (Score:4, Informative)
The term is Beta Males.
Humans aren't gorillas or captive wolves.
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I believe in the theory of evolution. That doesn't mean I buy all the cultural myths that have grown up around it.
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Betas and Alphas exist.
So do hive queens, but I'm not sure what bearing that has on humans.
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Trying to get laid is 'acting normally'
If you define normal as what most people are trying to do most of the time, then no, it is not.
And bro, seriously, knock it off at work.
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No. Just beware, keep it out of your report chain and don't be an asshole about it.
Not that the opportunities in tech are any good.
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Agreed, except rarity...mutual attraction is rare, females are common. For clarity, I'll amend my comment: If you don't know how to go about it, don't try and learn at work. Don't wear a 'wanna fuck?' t shirt. Don't email dickpics to all@work. No stalking. etc etc.
Re: "Tone at the top" is a thing (Score:2)
Yup.
When a company here's a feminist, SJH, or "Progressive" they are hiring a violent fundamentalist zealot who is committed to spiritual jihad against normal, healthy human culture. They should not be surprised by the inevitable bad consequences.
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People like to pretend that sexual harassment doesn't exist, but a lot of people haven't worked 100 hour weeks at startups.
I thought women knew better than to work 100 hour weeks for somebody else's profits.
But your honour! (Score:1)
"I though I was just playing a game...although they did feel very real!"
what does this have to do with technology? (Score:1)
Elizabeth Scott is a marketing expert suing a marketing company (UploadVR) for sexual harassment. A marketing company in San Francisco no less, a city ruled by sex and drugs. I generally have low expectations for people in marketing.
But what does this have to do with women in tech, or even technology? Why is this crap on Slashdot?
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But what does this have to do with women in tech, or even technology? Why is this crap on Slashdot?
The suit was settled By uploading hundreds of thousands of dollars into Elizabeth Scott's bank account.
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It's proof that the majority of women are prostitutes. Some are simply really expensive prostitutes. And proof that Trump was right. When you have enough money you can grab whatever you want. As nerds are rich social outcast virgins, this story brings them a new hope for their future.