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Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

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Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "literally" do you mean to imply he literally paid someone? That's quite implausible.

> When you say "literally" do you mean to imply he literally paid someone? Sadly, "literally" can mean "figuratively": From M-W:[1] "in effect : virtually —used in an exaggerated way to emphasize a statement or description that is not literally true or possible" (Yes, I know they used the word "literally" in the definition). They also made a special page to explain this.[2] [1]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio…

boycott merriam, webster and anybody else peddling that nonsense. literally is literally literally.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#222

Isn't this type of thing usually a civil case - how is it that he can get jail time? Also what ever happened to Kalanick in all of this?

Theft and attempted theft are criminal acts, which is what he was sentenced for. He was also subject to civil litigation.

I guess that answers the question: he would download a car.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely Levandowski has narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), as is evident by his founding The Way of The Future , which is his own church to worship artificial intelligence.

You cannot seriously believe “narcissistic personality disorder” is a real thing, right? This has to be the most “it came from social media” I’ve read on HN in a while. Every personality trait you don’t like or is difficult to deal with is not a “disorder”

Actually, one could make the point that social media came from NPD.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#224
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re trying to make this into a race issue, when that’s not really the case here. The justice system in San Francisco bends over backwards to keep criminals of all races, classes, and backgrounds out of prison, and especially so with Covid-19.

Class is a race issue.

[deleted]

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's a kind of fraud. If you cheat someone out of $1M by tricking them with a Nigerian Prince scam, you go to jail. If you cheat someone else out of $1M of profits by selling their trade secrets to a competitor, you should see a similar punishment, right?

Intellectual property isn't physical property. Google lost absolutely nothing in the exchange except the possibility of perpetual monopoly on this particular algorithm. Google still owns it, and they can still profit from it, the only difference is that they now have to actually compete.

Stealing IP via piracy will put you in jail too, though. I'm not trying to make a case for whether or not trade secrets (or movie downloads or software) "should" be protectable via law. I'm stating bluntly that it is.

And the reason is that it's fraud.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#226
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure anyone could hire a few experts to duplicate the flavor of Coke exactly. Their moat is branding, partnerships and a huge distribution network, not some "secret recipe".

It's been accidentally disclosed a few times over the years. IIRC at some point someone offered to sell the recipe to Pepsi, and they refused on account of the legal mess it would put them in and perhaps a sense of honor

And the fact that "Pepsi Coke" is a marketing non-starter; they want people to buy Pepsi, and the people who won't buy Pepsi, but will buy Coke...will just buy Coke, not Pepsi Coke.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#227
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you cannot compare becoming the world's best self-driving engineer to winning the lottery. This is like becoming Lebron James, it's tremendous talent combined with tremendous commitment.

That's survivor bias though, isn't it? Hard to see the world's best self-driving engineers when they're not getting caught stealing trade secrets and forced to reveal compensation.

Thought this was going to go a different direction for a moment...

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or until a competitor takes it apart and copies it, or figures out how you did it themselves. Not much of a monopoly.

That works fine for physical machines, but if you're talking about software, then copyright protections, DMCA, and CFAA apply too, which makes reverse engineering also illegal.

But independently coming up with something similar (or even identical) is perfectly legal with trade secrets. Not with patents.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#229

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 protec…

This needs to be the top comment.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#230

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 uphol…

No, it's a bit more complicated as Lev alleges he was unfairly screwed out of ownership of Otto (Uber Freight).

From the filing:

> As part of the transaction for the acquisition of Otto, Uber agreed to indemnify Mr. Levandowski for claims Google might raise against him. These claims included claims Google might assert for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of the duty of loyalty, breaches of various restrictive covenants, and trade secret misappropriation.

> Uber was aware of Mr. Levandowski’s conduct through the extensive investigation it conducted prior to and after entering into the indemnity agreement with him, and long before it purported to rescind. To the extent Uber claims it was unaware of certain facts, those facts were not material and were fully available to Uber had they cared to look more carefully at the materials it was provided by Mr. Levandowski. In fact, Mr. Levandowski repeatedly told Uber to search those devices for the most accurate information.

> Mr. Levandowski therefore commences the Adversary Proceeding to obtain declaratory relief as to the impact of Uber’s purported rescission on the parties’ respective rights and obligations, to enforce Uber’s obligations arising from the Otto transaction, and to disallow the Proof of Claim.

If I’m reading it correctly, Levandowski says Uber was in on the whole thing as early as Otto’s acquisition (if not earlier), and Uber did not deliver on what was promised per their arrangement.

That makes whatever was promised for Otto essentially reward for a crime, which incredibly Levandowski expects to rectify in a court of law.

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