A secure democratic Net is a fundamental right

There was a man with a big firm. A pharmaceutic firm. He had a good standing with the press and the business people and so everybody believed him when he said that something was tested profoundly. Why doubt the tests from someone who runs a pharmaceutical company that does nothing else ? So far so good.

One day he lets himself be convinced by a product that says that it will protect the users against the radiation from mobile phones. He thinks he has hit the jackpot because the fear for that radiation is spreading in the news and the medical sector. Even more the product is simple and can be put on an old phone or integrated in new ones. THey do some tests and some tests but he is not too critical, he sees dollars and not possible problems. He has to take the opportunity like a business manager and go forward.

So he does. he launches his product that will be available in the pharmacies, on the net and he sells the product to the press that applaud this new Belgian invention from one of the biggest Belgian new firms. Lernaut and Hauspie is here again.

Luckily - contrary to the Lernaut and Hauspie saga - some professors say immediately that this chip is nonsense. How can you stop the radiation without stopping the information (the conversation) ?  Now the press changes it tune.

He is wise enough to redo the tests another time and to conclude that the raditiation isn't stopped in high enough quantity. So he stops the production and the sales and will repay everyone that bought one. THe results of the tests aren't conclusive enough.

In the mean time, another question pops up, how does he do the tests for his other medical products you can ask yourself ? This will hurt. The biggest mistake was that no Nay sayer was in the test procedure (someone who doesn't believe anything and only looks for the bad things as your opposition will do). The second was that the tests were finished too early. The third was that the most credible spokesperson for the firm (the CEO) went out himself to do the selling from the start instead of a salesperson or marketingman (he should only go out himself if the product is a success). Now there is big problem of trust.

He looks a bit like the king without clothes now.