Amazon met with startups about investing, then launched competing products

Post by devin » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 4:56 AM UTC

ampersandy wrote: post #302

burtonator wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the problem is corruption begets corruption. They WANT do to these things because you're going to get a massive bonus when the product you 'invented' does well because you stole the idea from an Amazon customer. Amazon needs to be properly taxed so that this crap doesn't happen anymore. The idea that they shouldn't pay taxes simply because they're large should absolutely enrage everyone.

Who is saying they shouldn't be taxed because they are large? There's no 'large company' tax break. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/why-amazon-paid-no-federal-i... There's specific credits/exemptions in the tax code that they are able to exploit (and perhaps they can only exploit some of them _because_ they are a big company), but it really isn't about their size.

Post by QuinnyPig » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 5:06 AM UTC

throwaway_aws wrote: post #12

"An Amazon spokesman said the company doesn’t use confidential information that companies share with it to build competing products" Maybe...but in the past, AWS proactively looked at traction of products hosted on its platform, built competing products, and then scraped & targeted customer list of those hosted products. In fact, I was on a team in AWS that did exactly that. Why wouldn't their investing arm do the sa…

Post by b20000 » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 5:32 AM UTC

httpsterio wrote: post #206

icelancer wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> It is your fault, in the end, to not report your team Talk about all time gaslighting. It's the managers/directors job to ensure compliance, not normal employees.

If you see another employee committing a crime, you're obligated to report it under US law. You can be considered an accessory if you don't.

Post by b20000 » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 5:32 AM UTC

marta_morena_25 wrote: post #145

former-aws wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannot up vote this enough. During my time both at Retail and AWS it was perfectly normal to trawl production customer data and come up with ideas to launch competing products. Prices were always set lower or free offering justified as data-driven and customer obsession. I hated the gas lighting their customers and left in disgust of the company and its leadership which encourages that behavior.

"perfectly normal to trawl production customer data" It's not. And there are plenty of trainings inside of Amazon to make you aware of that. It is your fault, in the end, to not report your team. I have been on several teams at Amazon and this would always be an absolute no-go. It's already difficult to even get basic ideas about customer data, things that you would consider "essential" to improving the customer expe…

Post by hodgesrm » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 5:33 AM UTC

borski wrote: post #167

hodgesrm wrote: post #115

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Ah, so that has a name? It was in the middle of the document in a fat paragraph. I was delighted to find it--kind of like picking up a big seashell on a crowded beach.

https://www.everynda.com/blog/beware-residuals-clauses-nda/ We ended up signing it, but I went back and forth with their counsel to neuter this clause so that it was significantly safer: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Agreement, Recipient may use Residual Knowledge, subject to Provider’s valid patents, copyrights[, trade secrets], and mask work rights. [For the avoidance of doubt, no licen…