Rochester, N. Y. — A former Kodak engineering director, Maya Raber, has filed a wrongful termination suite against the company, alleging she was fired after protesting company policy.
The policy in question concerned compressing consumer images uploaded to Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery Web site to save server space and cut costs. When image files are compressed, they shed pixels and can degrade image quality if a user orders a reprint.
In a statement, Kodak claimed that Raber’s “accusations are completely false. We have not compressed images that are stored in the Gallery without our customers’ knowledge.”
According to published reports, Kodak considered, but never implemented, the policy of compressing its vast archives of digital photos without its customer’s knowledge. Instead, according to a spokesman, it chose to offer consumers the ability to quickly upload their images, which would be down-sized to speed transition. Kodak customers were informed that such an approach would produce prints up to 8 inches by 10 inches.
The suite alleges that Raber’s protests led to her termination. The case will be heard in the Superior Court of California, AlamedaCounty.
