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The iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO 4G video went viral a few days ago with well over 2 million views, but some executives over at Best Buy aren't laughing. Apparently using other videos uploaded under his profile, managers with the electronics retailing giant were able to determine his real life identity as an employee and have placed him on suspension pending review.
Corporate Best Buy has apparently requested he take the video down, but creator Brian Maupin has rightfully declined considering that it was done on his own time, and in no way references the company. The irony of the whole situation is that Best Buy feels slandered by the video, but in reality is likely to incur more negative press as a result of their unjustified persecution of Brian. They would have been far better off if they simply ignoring it, but it's too late to cover it up now.
Scroll on down to check out the video for yourself.
Comments are closed on this article
joelemon73
October 15, 2010 at 2:55pm
Why do people bash the very freedom they think they deserve? Bashing people who have a personal choice to have an iPhone, flash or not, is a just straight up being an ASSHOLE.
There are more important things to worry about than what phone has the biggest screen, best camera, 4G, etc.
The Government relies on keeping the majority of thoughtless minds out there busy with this kind of crap so they can do WTF they want. Just move the guy to a different department BB and everyone get over it. There is enough drama in the World. Go find something to do people, WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN! CHANGE THE LAWS, QUIT LETTING CORPORATE AMERICA LOBBY THEIR OWN WILL!
This guy is just trying to get attention for being tech savvy.
matmatician
July 05, 2010 at 3:11pm
Just watched the video on youtube... Priceless. Totally accurate portrayal of iPhone users.
OOOH... Its shiny and has a fruit on it... That must mean its awesome and the bestest thing evar!!!1!!
sudo make me a sandwhich
matmatician
benksanders
July 05, 2010 at 5:41am
LOL @ all the comments. The truth hurts, don't it, Apple & AT&T? Anyone have his contact info? I'd love to hire someone like Brian!
BuLLg0d
July 04, 2010 at 1:18pm
Someone gave me a 25 dollar gift certificate to Best Buy which kind of made me cringe internally as I am not a Best Buy fan. Well, it sat in my drawer until a button on my Razer Lachesis started acting up. Hesitantly, knowing I had that GC in my drawer and also knowing it was only about an hour before my friends logged on for some serious Zombie slaying, I went to Best Buys website and found a fair price on a Logitech MX518 gaming mouse. I hopped on my motorcycle and drove down there only to find it was almost 20 dollars more in the store. I asked them if they compete with on-line prices and he said, absolutely, to which, I said cool then, you show this item as 20 dollars less on-line. He smirked and said, that's our on-line pricing, we don't compete against ourselves. I left the mouse in his hands and gave the card to a young kid in line with his mom (buying a wii) behind me and walked out the door. I went across the highway to Fry's and bought the same damned mouse for 5 dollars less than if I had used the 25 dollar gift card. (I have to add, I told the story to the Fry's associate and he gave me a discount for my efforts and what he called "loyalty") gg Fry's
Glycerin
July 04, 2010 at 3:28pm
Sad but true.. Best Buy sucks, I'll never shop there. They're all a bunch of douchemongers. I wish they had gone out of business instead of Circuit City.
Blondie
July 04, 2010 at 10:34am
What turds.
[b][color=#CC6699]MPC Dream Machine 2008 HP Blackbird 002 12/25 -
Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 - Core 2 Quad Q9550 - Corsair XMS3 DHX 2GB x2 -
BFG GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit
Justin.Kerr
July 04, 2010 at 11:51am
Yeah, minor oversight on my part.
Its good enough for another spin anyway :)
railload
July 04, 2010 at 4:35am
When Brian was hired by Best Buy, I doubt that they informed him that they would be in control of his private life. He is/was an employee, not a slave.
Rocketpop
July 04, 2010 at 7:44am
Actually, that's assumed to be true when you're part of a corporation. Corporations do, in fact, own you, and it's not illegal. They can terminate your employment for almost any reason, unless it's really blatant discrimination, which this isn't.
Vano
July 04, 2010 at 2:16am
So true and so hilarious.
My sister has an iPhone 3GS, when I sent this video to her, she replied that she's at work and can't watch it right now...yeah, right...:D
matmatician
July 05, 2010 at 3:13pm
Or maybe its cuz she cant watch flash videos on an iPhone haha
sudo make me a sandwhich
matmatician
bleedingroue
July 03, 2010 at 10:45pm
First off let me say that I in no way can think lower of Best Buy, that said, merely making this video an issue has earned more slanderous press for BB than the actual video does(which is none) so if they are worried about this then why bring it up at all. Adding on that, by terminating the employee in question BB will earn even more bad press.
mesiah
July 03, 2010 at 9:11pm
I have seen several people comment about freedom of speech in relation to this incident. Not to be some sort of nazi or something, but technically this guys rights to free speech were never oppressed. Freedom of speech only means the government can't imprison you for speaking your mind. Nowhere does it say that a company can't fire you for speaking out. They can't fire you for your race, or your sex, or your religion. But they can fire you for just about anything else, or even nothing at all. Best buy isn't telling this kid he can't make anti-iphone videos. They are just telling him he can't make anti-iphone videos AND sell iphones for best buy.
That being said, this video is hilarious.
jcseely
July 03, 2010 at 11:08pm
What exactly does this video have to do with Best Buy? Where is Best Buy mentioned in this video? Where does the creator of the video advertise that he works at Best Buy?
Oh that's right. NOWHERE.
mesiah
July 07, 2010 at 10:52pm
I don't care how much it angers you. The video has nothing to do with best buy you are correct. But the notion of "freedom of speech" you seem to have is not at all what is written in our constitution. This kid isn't being locked up for making a video, he is being fired by his employer. Freedom of speech does not protect your job. You can rail against best buy all you want, but don't sound like an idiot claiming this is a legal matter protected by the constitution. People are fired every day because their views don't match that of the company they work for, even when their views have nothing at all to do with said company. You can claim some form of descrimination, which does happen to be against the law. Freedom of speech however is only good for keeping you out of prison.
grorc
July 03, 2010 at 7:42pm
You really think Best Buy came up with that on their own! No way! Jobs had him hunted down, found out he worked at Best Buy and tried to get them to fire him. Tell me that didnt happen! You all know its true!
Queenof1
July 03, 2010 at 6:10pm
There's an answer video to this one, evo vs Iphone. Did the same guy do both videos? Anyway. like everyone else said, the videos are parodies and should be protected under free speech. I surely didn't see any reference whatsoever to BB. Like the article said, BB brought negative attention on itself by even suspending the dude. The whole smartphone wars thing is pretty hilarious. Go TeamAndroid!
pastorbob
July 03, 2010 at 3:54pm
My wife works for another major retailer as an optician. The management doesn't care about the employees and will use any excuse to fire them. Their attitude is that there are plenty of people out there looking for jobs so they have an endless labor pool from which to draw. Experience and the ability to do the job well counts for nothing. So this incident is not surprising. What makes it unique is that it drew so much attention.
Anyhow the video is hilarious. I think the guy deserves an award for it.
TechJunkie
July 03, 2010 at 1:28pm
I never really shopped at Best Buy but I occasionally did for a few things. Now I think I will take the time and go the extra 2 miles to CompUSA giving Best Buy the bird as I drive buy. This is a funny video and in no way does it implicate BB, or anyone else for that matter (except for the apple fritters), for them to be up all in arms over this. BB is just ridiculous.
I have to PooP!
cc3d
July 03, 2010 at 1:21pm
Man, the eyePhone incedent and now BestBuy folding inder pressure. Apple is becoming the big brother they've pretended to be against.
1984
1984
1984
1984
BuLLg0d
July 03, 2010 at 12:55pm
Gizmodo gets an iPhone 4 early - Apple rains down
White hat hacker warns AT&T/Apple about security flaw - gets arrested for separate drug charges
Best Buy Employee makes stupid video lampooning Apple users - Now suspended and & possibly fired
Connect the dots people...
"Wake up Neo..."
bigkahuna
July 03, 2010 at 12:25pm
more and more big corporations are acting like the chinese goverment right under our own goverment's nouses.
fuz1on_ evo4g
July 03, 2010 at 12:19pm
Wow great job to the creator of this video. I myself as a Evo 4G owner can't fathom why these IPhone lovers can't see the beast of the Evo as a winner. The video is amazing and wish I had made the video myself. Lol. IPhone sucks, Android, Sprint, and Evo rock.
nduanetesh
July 03, 2010 at 11:40am
If I had to guess, I'd say this is more about Best Buy's relationship with Apple than it is about Best Buy feeling slandered by these videos. Best Buy is afraid that if they let this video poster go unpunished, Apple will get pissed off that he pointed out the failings of their product without being punished for it, and the relationship between Apple and Best Buy will suffer.
That's way more logical than "Best Buy feels slandered by a video that doesn't in any way mention Best Buy".
JMG760
July 03, 2010 at 11:12am
Wow, the video has nothing to do with best buy and no mention whatsoever. This is starting to sound more like a lawsuit taking place. I'm pretty sure best buy has violated some rights from Brian.
Daemon
July 03, 2010 at 11:11am
Corporate mofies need to quit infringing on peoples rights to parody anything they want. Stuffy shirts at BB - HQ have no business telling employees what they can or cannot do on their own time as long as it doesn't directly name their corporate machines. Best Buy has 0 humour its not like they're gona lose anything from it anyways .
Athlonite
July 06, 2010 at 7:50am
Actually yes they they can if it defames Best buy as a store or is in direct Violation of their employee contract... but really they should give the guy a quiet raise and let it go just for the LOL factor
Play till it breaks then learn how to fix it!
Cy-Kill
July 05, 2010 at 4:07am
I know how this feels to get told by the head office about doing stuff on my own time. For example, I was working for a security company and after doing my shift, I'd go to a community run meal, I mentioned it to a co-worker one day, and it got back to head office, so when I went to the office to pick something up, I got called in the big guy's office and told I shouldn't need to be going to a community meal because I am making so much money. Excuse me, telling me what I can & can't do on my own time is a no no in my book!
Cy-Kill
Rocketpop
July 03, 2010 at 11:02am
Yeah, your thought that Best Buy (let's see this comment get through the spam filter with those two words together) is going to get slandered worse by going crazy over this seems pretty spot-on. I'm not sure what they expect to gain from this whole thing, but it's not going to work.
Athlonite
July 06, 2010 at 7:46am
HAHA whats the bet they now sell 50 HTC's to 1 crapple iPhuck they should give the guy a raise
Play till it breaks then learn how to fix it!
