This guy had such a sweet deal at Google originally, it staggers me that he'd go to these lengths to steal even more.
He was getting a massive salarY, bonuses in the millions, and he had persuaded Google to pay him even more money through a side-hustle company of his while remaining an employee. Then he quits and steals their stuff.
He was so brazen in using identical schematic and suppliers. It amazing to think all this is a result of the supplier getting confused from having two clients with identical schematics and accidently cc'ing the wrong engineers.
I’ve seen this happen before in a totally different industry. Now I wonder how many opportunities there are for companies to do this and I wonder how often they get away with it.
Never seen that story and can't find any details after a quick Google search. I wonder how much of the anti-Levandowski news is Google or Uber PR propaganda.
Why is white collar crime punished with such light sentences? I could have got that sentence for house breaking, or shoplifting to the value of $5k. I could get a lot more for dealing drugs to a few friends. Steal $100m and get 18 months, starting when the world is a nicer place. The world really is set up for rich people.
Someone made this point elsewhere. It's a 'trade secret' and 'stealing' is not as accurate as 'leaking' or 'copying' as it doesn't prevent the original owners from using it.
Usually civil lawsuits are fines. Should your (ex) employeer be able to put you in prison? Because I can see how that can be misused if a few figured out how to be convincing enough
For any non-violent crimes we should not send people to prison. I don't even know why it became a criminal matter. Civil courts can do that job really well.
If we prosecute everyone who took information from the previous job, then there will no sales people left. I don't know any SaaS sales person who doesn't take their sales funnel with them.
Much more interesting to me is that the article says "he will not need to report until threat of COVID-19 pandemic has passed." and "With no end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, it is possible that Levandowski’s latest lawsuit will be resolved before he even reports to jail."
A courtesy not afforded to the largely not-rich, not-white general prison population. I don't think Levandowski should be treated worse, just noting it would be nice if less privileged prisoners were treated as humanely.
Why is the government throwing people in jail for leaking trade secrets?
Trade secrets aren't supposed to have government protection, that's the entire point: they're risky. If you want a monopoly on your technology, you're supposed to file a patent. Trade secrets were invented as a riskier way to extend your monopoly by giving up government protection.
If the government is going to give trade secrets the same protection as patents (or even more, because patent infringement doesn't come with jail time), companies have zero motivation to publish.
> If the government is going to give trade secrets the same protection as patents (or even more, because patent infringement doesn't come with jail time), companies have zero motivation to publish.
Despite both forms of IP enjoying legal protections, there are many reasons to prefer trade secrets over patents or vice versa.
It's much much easier to accidentally lose trade secret protection by inadvertantly divulging those secrets, so in that sense patents are more "durable".
You also can't use trade secret protections to prevent reverse engineering, so any invention that's easily observable and reversible is not suitable for trade secret protection.
Trade secrets also can't be used to protect from independent invention, so if someone else discovers your trick, you have no recourse.
Conversely, trade secrets apply to things that cannot traditionally be patented. The classic example is, of course, the recipe for coke, as recipes in general are not patentable subject matter
Trade secrets also have no expiration date, hence again, Coke.
Obviously this is a deep well and I've only just barely scratched the surface.
No, patents cover someone even independently coming up with the same idea and making a copy. Trade secrets don't have that protection. You can still steal trade secrets. If you couldn't, you're basically arguing IP isn't property (which is a perfectly valid philosophical position, and one I'm sympathetic to)
Don't steal $5,000 from the liqor store, that will get you arrested at gunpoint and you'll spend many years in prison. Instead steal $50,000,000 and you'll probably still be rich once you pay the fines and complete the community service or home arrest.
He was recommending himself 12 month of home confinement. We’ve basically been in home confinement for 5 months now. Basically in Covid era, he’d be Scott free
Wait. The guy essentially says “I committed a crime, will pay US$XXX million, but we had it in our contract that the guys who hired me would take the blame, so make them pay me US$X billion.” Am I reading that correctly?
Can that contract even remain legally recognized?
Sorting out quarrels between entities who were found cooperating in a crime, evaluating whether one should compensate the other for failing to uphold its part of the deal, certainly looks like the best use of a country’s justice system.
> Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to alleviate the outbreak by releasing as many as 8,000 inmates and further reducing the population by about 10,000 through delayed admissions.[1]
Quite a lot; there is a federal policy for release to home confinement of current prisoners with COVID-19 risk factors after evaluation of other factors.
When I have an upcoming dentist appointment looming over my head, My entire week can be ruined by anxiety. I have no idea how people can be sentenced to serious time in prison that will happen... sometime in the future...
For what it's worth, Befriend your dentist and the staff there and take headphones to listen to a long podcaste, video or music. It's not perfect of course, but it does wonders and letting them know also helps so they can help get you through it. Finding another dentist or looking into sedation is also an option if it's too bad. As someone with crap tons of dental work and awful teeth, I assure you you're not alone there. :)
An honest and naive question from someone outside industry: where is the line between stealing trade secrets and taking your experience and expertise developed at another company to a new company. Where does a lesson learned during project X become taking the know-how of the company which it developed during project X?
Because obviously the next company pays you so much because they see in your CV that you gained experience at the other company. This also works outside tech and I'm genuinely confused how this works for people bouncing across FAANG, say. How do they not take best practices across companies? What is your personal expertise and what is company IP? Does it depend on the wording of the contract? Is it ambiguous and murky and up to the court and everyone just hopes they won't get in trouble?
Taking best practices is not the same as taking trade secrets. It's ambiguous and murky, yes, but realistically, if it is ambiguous and murky, the case is likely to fall apart. It's when it's clear that you took some secret sauce with you, and replicated it wholesale, that a case is likely to be brought, and likely to be won.
Looks like his "Way of the Future" church website is also no longer his: https://www.wayofthefuture.church/
The last time it was online with the original content was in March 2020.
His professional reputation is in tatters ... probably best he goes to China after his release as they will probably be the only ones that would not care and have the cash that would hire him.
Maybe he has some hidden, but then we'd be talking about bank and bankruptcy fraud and people are probably keeping an eye on him. Any new job after all is settled and done, will be without much responsibility or upshots
If Uber shows he knew he gave them stolen trade secrets, doesn't it also follow he would have only agreed to sell Otto to them if the agreement showed he was indemnified against specifically that?
not otto related. why is techcrunch so slow on chromium browsers. to read the article, had to open it in firefox reader mode, private. thousands of requests to just read a wall of text.
[+] [-] w0mbat|5 years ago|reply
He was getting a massive salarY, bonuses in the millions, and he had persuaded Google to pay him even more money through a side-hustle company of his while remaining an employee. Then he quits and steals their stuff.
[+] [-] kanobo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sushid|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chordalkeyboard|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bosswipe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimnotgym|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] westicecoast32|5 years ago|reply
Usually civil lawsuits are fines. Should your (ex) employeer be able to put you in prison? Because I can see how that can be misused if a few figured out how to be convincing enough
[+] [-] bzb3|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timavr|5 years ago|reply
If we prosecute everyone who took information from the previous job, then there will no sales people left. I don't know any SaaS sales person who doesn't take their sales funnel with them.
[+] [-] karlakush|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] williamstein|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gilrain|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] hannasanarion|5 years ago|reply
Trade secrets aren't supposed to have government protection, that's the entire point: they're risky. If you want a monopoly on your technology, you're supposed to file a patent. Trade secrets were invented as a riskier way to extend your monopoly by giving up government protection.
If the government is going to give trade secrets the same protection as patents (or even more, because patent infringement doesn't come with jail time), companies have zero motivation to publish.
[+] [-] CarelessExpert|5 years ago|reply
You're definitely mistaken on that point. Trade secrets enjoy protection in the law, both in the US and worldwide:
https://www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/trade-secret-policy
> If the government is going to give trade secrets the same protection as patents (or even more, because patent infringement doesn't come with jail time), companies have zero motivation to publish.
Despite both forms of IP enjoying legal protections, there are many reasons to prefer trade secrets over patents or vice versa.
It's much much easier to accidentally lose trade secret protection by inadvertantly divulging those secrets, so in that sense patents are more "durable".
You also can't use trade secret protections to prevent reverse engineering, so any invention that's easily observable and reversible is not suitable for trade secret protection.
Trade secrets also can't be used to protect from independent invention, so if someone else discovers your trick, you have no recourse.
Conversely, trade secrets apply to things that cannot traditionally be patented. The classic example is, of course, the recipe for coke, as recipes in general are not patentable subject matter
Trade secrets also have no expiration date, hence again, Coke.
Obviously this is a deep well and I've only just barely scratched the surface.
[+] [-] xxpor|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pauljurczak|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 6nf|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ponsin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m3kw9|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] strogonoff|5 years ago|reply
Can that contract even remain legally recognized?
Sorting out quarrels between entities who were found cooperating in a crime, evaluating whether one should compensate the other for failing to uphold its part of the deal, certainly looks like the best use of a country’s justice system.
[+] [-] bagacrap|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foolfoolz|5 years ago|reply
756k in restitution. 95k in fines. “theft” of 800k+. gets him a 1.5 year sentence
75% of robberies are for less than 10k. 3% over 250k. yet average sentence is ~10 years.
https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu...
[+] [-] jarym|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Thorrez|5 years ago|reply
> Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to alleviate the outbreak by releasing as many as 8,000 inmates and further reducing the population by about 10,000 through delayed admissions.[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20200802050956/https://www.latim...
[+] [-] timmytokyo|5 years ago|reply
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https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/politics/michael-cohen-will-b...
[+] [-] Waterluvian|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] bonoboTP|5 years ago|reply
Because obviously the next company pays you so much because they see in your CV that you gained experience at the other company. This also works outside tech and I'm genuinely confused how this works for people bouncing across FAANG, say. How do they not take best practices across companies? What is your personal expertise and what is company IP? Does it depend on the wording of the contract? Is it ambiguous and murky and up to the court and everyone just hopes they won't get in trouble?
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