Interesting. Where are you getting that opinion from? Mine comes from the article Jonathan himself tweeted:
"At 7 p.m. PT Friday, Starbucks reluctantly pulled the plug on Stark’s pay-it-forward social experiment following allegations of fraud or misuse. ...
Adam Brotman, vice president of digital ventures at Starbucks, phoned Stark earlier Friday evening to inform him that the card would be deactivated. Starbucks, he says, was rooting for the experiment from the sidelines, even though the company’s terms do not permit the use of shared registered cards.
'I’m sad about it, first and foremost, because we were legitimately cheering on this experiment,' Brotman says. ...
Once the exploit was public, however, Starbucks felt compelled to deactivate the card."
"At 7 p.m. PT Friday, Starbucks reluctantly pulled the plug on Stark’s pay-it-forward social experiment following allegations of fraud or misuse. ...
Adam Brotman, vice president of digital ventures at Starbucks, phoned Stark earlier Friday evening to inform him that the card would be deactivated. Starbucks, he says, was rooting for the experiment from the sidelines, even though the company’s terms do not permit the use of shared registered cards. 'I’m sad about it, first and foremost, because we were legitimately cheering on this experiment,' Brotman says. ...
Once the exploit was public, however, Starbucks felt compelled to deactivate the card."
http://mashable.com/2011/08/13/jonathans-card-shut-down/