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Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

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Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#11

Post by devmor »

juunpp wrote: post #7
pritambaral wrote: post #6

TFA makes it sound as if the entirety of the blame can be placed on one employee. Sure, his actions do seem to support that view, but then again, Nvidia did hire him precisely for his previous experience at this rival company, on the very same project that the two companies were partnered on, which is the same project that Nvidia hired him for. There is no argument to be made that Nvidia wasn't aware he'd be coming w…

> Nvidia did hire him precisely for his previous experience at this rival company, on the very same project that the two companies were partnered on, which is the same project that Nvidia hired him for. Yes, this happens all the time. > There is no argument to be made that Nvidia wasn't aware he'd be coming with secrets. This is not a logical conclusion from the above. Hiring for the exp is fine. Hiring for the trade…

[flagged]

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#12

Post by clnq »

This often happens ingenuously, not out of calculated ill intent. Coders will keep code snippets and thoughts in personal knowledge tools like Notion, and then reuse them in different companies. Or contractors will straight up copy and paste code from source files of projects they worked on for different companies, thinking "I wrote it, so I could write it again, but why bother?", or something along those lines. People don't usually brag about these things, but they do come to light in random conversations.

This is exactly what happened here:

> According to Valeo's complaint, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, an engineer for NVIDIA who used to work for its company, had mistakenly showed its source code files on his computer as he was sharing his screen during a meeting with both firms in 2022

In most cases, these people are asked to remove all such code from the codebase and never do it again, but news about this rarely reaches the executive level. Usually, there aren't clear rules that it's supposed to be reported, so low level managers handle it the best they can. Of course, this guy got caught in very unusual circumstances.

It is also very unfortunate to be the software engineer who notices others doing this, because it puts you in a whistleblower's dilemma. The upper management does not want to be implicated in this and they do not want to know. Besides, informing them would definitely lead to the coder's firing. What is worse, many programmers see liberal use of IP as "not a big deal". So you would be perceived as causing problems for upper management, and getting people fired for "petty" reasons. It can sink your career in most companies if you witness this and it gets out. There are laws that protect whistleblowers from being let go sometimes, but it's not conducive to anyone's career growth to remain in the company because they cannot be fired.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#13

Post by takinola »

pritambaral wrote: post #6

TFA makes it sound as if the entirety of the blame can be placed on one employee. Sure, his actions do seem to support that view, but then again, Nvidia did hire him precisely for his previous experience at this rival company, on the very same project that the two companies were partnered on, which is the same project that Nvidia hired him for. There is no argument to be made that Nvidia wasn't aware he'd be coming w…

I don't have direct knowledge of this company or the parties involved but I would be highly doubtful that Nvidia would want to have an employee steal the secrets of a competitor/partner. In my experience, companies of this size would aggressively not want tainted IP inside their companies. He would need to be bringing across something as valuable as AGI, cure for cancer, etc for it to be even worth considering. There are numerous examples of companies being offered trade secrets of their competitors and reporting it back to the FBI just so they can avoid even the suspicion of stealing corporate secrets.

If you think about it for a second, it is kind of obvious. Pretty much every technology is reproducible with the right amount of talent, funding and time. Why commit a crime when you can simply throw money (of which you have a lot) at the problem? Responsible corporate officers know this and act accordingly.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#15

Post by aaomidi »

takinola wrote: post #13
pritambaral wrote: post #6

TFA makes it sound as if the entirety of the blame can be placed on one employee. Sure, his actions do seem to support that view, but then again, Nvidia did hire him precisely for his previous experience at this rival company, on the very same project that the two companies were partnered on, which is the same project that Nvidia hired him for. There is no argument to be made that Nvidia wasn't aware he'd be coming w…

I don't have direct knowledge of this company or the parties involved but I would be highly doubtful that Nvidia would want to have an employee steal the secrets of a competitor/partner. In my experience, companies of this size would aggressively not want tainted IP inside their companies. He would need to be bringing across something as valuable as AGI, cure for cancer, etc for it to be even worth considering. There…

> Why commit a crime when you can simply throw money (of which you have a lot) at the problem?

Indeed. But the stupidity of committing a crime does not actually stop companies from doing so. Mainly because the penalties for it are never harsh enough.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#17

Post by takinola »

devmor wrote: post #11
juunpp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nvidia did hire him precisely for his previous experience at this rival company, on the very same project that the two companies were partnered on, which is the same project that Nvidia hired him for. Yes, this happens all the time. > There is no argument to be made that Nvidia wasn't aware he'd be coming with secrets. This is not a logical conclusion from the above. Hiring for the exp is fine. Hiring for the trade…

[flagged]

Risk is always balanced against reward. I doubt Nvidia is culpable here not because I have some strong belief in their morality but because I trust they would not take stupid tradeoffs.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#18

Post by Retric »

takinola wrote: post #17
devmor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Risk is always balanced against reward. I doubt Nvidia is culpable here not because I have some strong belief in their morality but because I trust they would not take stupid tradeoffs.

The exposure was unexpected so the risk was likely perceived as low.

That said, the discovery process could clear NVIDA.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#19

Post by actionfromafar »

takinola wrote: post #17
devmor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Risk is always balanced against reward. I doubt Nvidia is culpable here not because I have some strong belief in their morality but because I trust they would not take stupid tradeoffs.

That puts a lot of faith in a lot employees.

Re: Nvidia sued for stealing trade secrets: blunder showed rival company's code

#20

Post by mcpackieh »

UberFly wrote: post #2

One of the employees had his previous employers' code. There will have to be proof that Nvidia even knew about it for this to go anywhere beyond the employee.

What does it mean for "Nvidia to know" something? Does it never count as a "corporation knowing" unless the executives are aware of it? Obviously this cannot be the standard by which companies are held accountable.
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