Publisher Closure Puts 2600 in Limbo
2600.com
2600.com
They do have annual volumes DRM free, but I'd rather get the quarterly...
[disclosure: 2600 is not my full time job but I am on the magazine and web teams]
On the other hand, if 2600, not to mention the other small fry publishers, can survive the blow, they can essentially free ride on the legal efforts of the big fish in their creditor class. There's enough money at stake that Time Warner et. al. will expend plenty of effort, if they perceive there will be a sufficient payoff ("can't get blood out of a stone", sometimes the best you can do is force a Chapter 7 liquidation and get a few pennies on the dollar for your efforts).
That doesn't mean. however, mean the judge has to accept the company's proposed plan for continued operations, creditors can submit their own, can even take over the company, and he can for example reverse recent asset transfers. The company was split into these pieces last October (http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2014/6/24/source_interlink_c...), that may be recent enough if they're trying to play these sorts of games.
The biggest problem for 2600 would seem to be the "limbo" part: all collection efforts are stayed while this gets hashed out---the whole reason for Chapter 11 reorganization is to try to do something less destructive than a liquidation---so whatever money 2600 will get from this process won't be arriving any time soon.
However Chapter 11 doesn't mean the company can simply stiff creditors like 2600, in fact the prospects for the creditors should by definition be better than for a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Welcome to America, where corporations are people when it is convenient (e.g. when they want to get their favorite politicians elected), but can restructure themselves to avoid paying their debt when they fuck up big time.
Maybe I should borrow a shitload of money from a bank, and then cut off my hand and say to the bank, "well, it was actually my hand that owed you money. The rest of my body doesn't owe you anything."
I should be outraged by this cunning strategy but I guess corporations exploiting legal loop holes to do dirty business irritates me more.
As you say it's the business getting dirty here, not hackers.
Might work.
Sadly the TEN brand doesn't exist for the average consumer, only their magazine names do. This is pretty common in the magazine business.
Not going to work and it can't work. If the strategy was to put the company in bankruptcy then they can't pay any debts out of bankruptcy period. It wouldn't be legal.
As a side note whatever chance you might have to getting money out of a bankrupt company on the sly (say they create a PO for some other goods and services to get you the money say it's your brother in law etc.) would never ever happen for obvious reason because of all the publicity.
I've read elsewhere over 5,000 were laid off, and they have less than 200 left. This would be to pay what's due to the former, and/or continue to pay the latter, so the company doesn't just shut down now, a worst case for everyone.