The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering • Hacker News Board

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#21

Post by nimbius » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #18

> The DoJ alleges that Huawei and a number of its affiliates used confidential agreements with American companies over the past two decades to access the trade secrets of those companies, only to then misappropriate that intellectual property and use it to fund Huawei’s business. These American companies thought they could build their products for a fraction of the price in China and increase margins. They didn't sto…

in a lot of cases the low-cost competitors are not only lower cost but have more features and/or better performance. They side-step a lot of the planned obsolescence and intentional feature scarcity US companies have become so dependent on to avoid meaningful R&D. Its hard not to see a lot of them as sort of a Robin Hood.

On topic though, Most of the pot-banging from Washington is at the behest of AT&T and other US carrier/handset/chip companies who are rightly livid that Huawei made it to market with 5G before they had a chance to monopolize it.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#22

Post by thrownaway954 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

so what does this mean? do they haul all the executives and workers into court? what happens if they are found guilty? do the executives go to jail, is the company forced to shutdown, or do they just have to pay a fine and all is good. hell, do they even have to pay the fine?

so many questions :(

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#23

Post by tharne » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #21

nostromo wrote: post #18

> The DoJ alleges that Huawei and a number of its affiliates used confidential agreements with American companies over the past two decades to access the trade secrets of those companies, only to then misappropriate that intellectual property and use it to fund Huawei’s business. These American companies thought they could build their products for a fraction of the price in China and increase margins. They didn't sto…

in a lot of cases the low-cost competitors are not only lower cost but have more features and/or better performance. They side-step a lot of the planned obsolescence and intentional feature scarcity US companies have become so dependent on to avoid meaningful R&D. Its hard not to see a lot of them as sort of a Robin Hood. On topic though, Most of the pot-banging from Washington is at the behest of AT&T and other US c…

> Most of the pot-banging from Washington is at the behest of AT&T and other US carrier/handset/chip companies who are rightly livid that Huawei made it to market with 5G before they had a chance to monopolize it.

Nope. Pretty sure most of the issue has to do with the spying, backdoors, and overall lack of ethics. This is the from same country that brought us a potential global pandemic because they spent weeks lying and covering up a rapidly spreading illness simply because they didn't want to lose face.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#24

Post by vorpalhex » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #21

nostromo wrote: post #18

> The DoJ alleges that Huawei and a number of its affiliates used confidential agreements with American companies over the past two decades to access the trade secrets of those companies, only to then misappropriate that intellectual property and use it to fund Huawei’s business. These American companies thought they could build their products for a fraction of the price in China and increase margins. They didn't sto…

in a lot of cases the low-cost competitors are not only lower cost but have more features and/or better performance. They side-step a lot of the planned obsolescence and intentional feature scarcity US companies have become so dependent on to avoid meaningful R&D. Its hard not to see a lot of them as sort of a Robin Hood. On topic though, Most of the pot-banging from Washington is at the behest of AT&T and other US c…

> not only lower cost but have more features and/or better performance

Yeah, many of these vendors do improve upon the original products quite a bit so even while initial versions can be shoddy knockoffs, later editions are often times improved compared to the original.

> Its hard not to see a lot of them as sort of a Robin Hood.

They're definitely profiting, and they're doing it partially through lower worker standards and looser laws on pollution. They are acting for profit, not to fix the flaws of Western capitalism.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#25

Post by euix » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:31 PM UTC

I think the train on Huawei has already left the station. The most likely scenario is a U.S. maybe a few states highly dependent on U.S. security assurances vis-a-vis China toeing the line and everybody else using some combination of Huawei and Nokia/Ericsson in various combinations within their infrastructure based on how close they align with the U.S. or China.

This whole thing looks just like AIIB a couple years ago where the U.S. made a huge stink about not joining the club and in the end everybody but Japan and Taiwan signed up.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#26

Post by tharne » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

ep103 wrote: post #2

You can charge a company with RICO? Maybe we can charge a political party then.

U.S. law says corporations are people. People can be charged with RICO. It may be weird, but it's consistent.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#27

Post by anonobviosly » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

My previous employer and my current one (both Fortune-50 tech companies) each had quiet policies that prospective job candidates who had Huawei on their resume needed extra clearing before they could even interview. Reading through the indictment makes the policies seem less paranoid or perhaps even not paranoid enough.

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#28

Post by crmrc114 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

and using proxies such as professors working at research institutions to obtain and provide the technology to the defendants You know this talk about using American Professors as proxies for exfiltrating information reminds me of this: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00291-2

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#29

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #18

> The DoJ alleges that Huawei and a number of its affiliates used confidential agreements with American companies over the past two decades to access the trade secrets of those companies, only to then misappropriate that intellectual property and use it to fund Huawei’s business. These American companies thought they could build their products for a fraction of the price in China and increase margins. They didn't sto…

These American companies thought that having them sign a confidentiality agreement would mean they would actually follow through with the agreement. It wasn't just a "send em the plans and get our widgets for cheap!"

Re: The U.S. is charging Huawei with racketeering

#30

Post by Ididntdothis » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

tharne wrote: post #26

ep103 wrote: post #2

You can charge a company with RICO? Maybe we can charge a political party then.

U.S. law says corporations are people. People can be charged with RICO. It may be weird, but it's consistent.

Corporations are people mainly when it’s convenient. I am not aware of a company being sent to jail or sentenced to death. Regular persons can’t always settle things by paying a big (or small) fine.