It’s the cover-up that gets you, not the screw-up. IIPM are about to find that out first-hand. Overselling (or tooting one’s horn for that matter) isn’t a crime, but the fine b-school academics over at the sue-happy institute should perhaps have been new-age enough to read The Cluetrain Manifesto and realize that rubbish threats (like these fine bits of public discourse involving toilets and molotov cocktails, archived here) do more harm than good.
I’m sorry I didn’t find out about this sooner, because I really have little to add to the sea of posts this has already generated. All I’ll say is IIPM’s antics were excellent entertainment (and fodder for many jokes) up to the point that people started quitting their jobs because of threats of portable computer immolation (!). I’m still waiting to see how this’ll pan out — and when someone at IIPM will realize that a high-profile court case involving a ridiculous sum of money will give them far more of the spotlight than they really wanted.
Updated 15 Oct: The Indian media continues to maintain radio silence on this, barring NDTV and a city edition of the Indian Express. Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that IIPM is one of its largest advertisers. No sirree.