Former Kodak Director of Engineering filed a suit this week against Kodak Imaging Network accusing them of damaging customers' pictures by compressing them without advising them.
Maya Raber, filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court against Kodak Imaging Network, and parent company Eastman Kodak Company alleging wrongful termination and retaliation after she complained about Kodak's false advertising, deception of consumers and irreversible damage to Kodak customers' photo files.
As a Director of Engineering, Raber was overseeing the Site Software Development Department since 2002. When Kodak decided to implement an aggressive cost saving project by illegally tampering with customers' digital photos, she and others objected.
"Kodak disregarded consumers' interests in its efforts to save money. The plan was to hide behind the trusted Kodak brand, instead of promoting and protecting it" she explains.
The complaint alleges that Kodak executives intended to market the project so that customers would be fooled into thinking that they were getting a better photo format and service when in fact, irreversible damage was being done. A Kodak executive is attributed as saying that the Kodak customers "wouldn't understand anyway."
When it became clear that Mrs. Raber would continue to oppose the project, she was abruptly and without cause terminated.
"This is an outrageous example of how big companies fire good employees who complain about illegal wrongdoing on the job," Mrs. Raber's attorney, Gary Gwilliam said.
Kodak responded o the lawsuit on Wednesday through a statement that read as follows:
"We can assure you that Ms. Raber's accusations are completely false. We have not compressed images that are stored in the Gallery without our customers' knowledge."