Week in Tech History – 5-18-09 – eBay Baby
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May 24, 2008: they claim it was meant as a joke, but people didn’t take it with a grain of salt. The couple put their baby up for auction. 1 euro was the price, which at the time was about $1.57 US.
eBay – who already had a policy of no sale of human beings – took down the listing and suspended the account. What was worse was the child was taken and the parents were investigated for child cruelty. Eventually the charges were dropped and the parents got their little bundle of “Buy it now” back on July 4th.
Other events of WITH: T. Boone Pickens puts in a ton of money into Yahoo after Carl Icahn issues a proxy battle. We also found out about the first idea of a moving sidewalk. Abbyword was released. Apple and CBS were sued over “Mighty Mouse”, AOL buys Bebe and the infamous 5 cent email tax.