Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

Re: Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

#6

Post by vinkelhake » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 10:50 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #5

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

Things always appear clear to conspiracy theorists.

Do you have facts to back this up? People join and leave jobs in the financial industry every day. Is Goldman Sachs special in this regard?

Re: Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

#7

Post by Permit » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 10:51 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #5

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

How is that clear? I haven't followed the case, but it seems as though he copied important intellectual property (HFT code) when he left the firm. I'm sure if a developer at Apple or Microsoft downloaded the Windows or OS X kernel code when they left that they would face charges of some kind as well.

Re: Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

#8

Post by downandout » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 10:56 PM UTC

Permit wrote: post #7

downandout wrote: post #5

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

How is that clear? I haven't followed the case, but it seems as though he copied important intellectual property (HFT code) when he left the firm. I'm sure if a developer at Apple or Microsoft downloaded the Windows or OS X kernel code when they left that they would face charges of some kind as well.

I read the original (very detailed) article. According to it, everything he copied was non-proprietary. Almost all of it was open source stuff.

Re: Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

#9

Post by TrainedMonkey » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 10:56 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #5

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

That is essentially correct. However this fight is about more than just him. Essentially he took open source that he modified while at Goldman (Which Goldman prohibited him from releasing *fixed). So while his life is ruined (Although he is still better of then 99.99% of people out there) there is a mighty precedent in the works here: employees can't go to jail for legally following license.

Re: Russian programmer fights Goldman Sachs and wins one round

#10

Post by downandout » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 10:59 PM UTC

vinkelhake wrote: post #6

downandout wrote: post #5

It's very clear that Goldman is trying to punish him for leaving, while sending a message to their other programmers that if they leave, their lives will be ruined. Even if this guy ultimately wins the state trial, he will never get back the years he has spent fighting it. Goldman has already won, and in this case that is appalling.

Things always appear clear to conspiracy theorists. Do you have facts to back this up? People join and leave jobs in the financial industry every day. Is Goldman Sachs special in this regard?

Do you have any idea how rare it is for a judge to order the alleged victim of a crime to pay the defense costs of the alleged perpetrator? If I'm a conspiracy theorist, the judge that made this ruling is as well.