My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me • Hacker News Board

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#121

Post by liquidise » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:04 AM UTC

artsrc wrote: post #100

liquidise wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to...? An individual leaving a large company and giving our legitimate trade secrets to a competitor company potentially ruining revenues (and thus salaries) for thousands? There are plenty of legitimate reasons for lawsuits from large corps to individuals. I have no idea if this is one of them. incidentally, that is why judges exist.

> legitimate trade secrets How long do trade secrets legitimately last in your view? There is room for people to have different views on this. > that is why judges exist The law is not equal when the parties have very different levels of resources. The existence of judges does not change this.

I'm sure coke thinks trade secrets are both quite important and last quite a while.

The quality of evidence tends to outweigh the quality of lawyer, assuming reasonable competence.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#122

Post by lesbaker » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:08 AM UTC

Honest question: How would Opera Software prove in court that Trond Hansen stole browser ideas/feature concepts (if I'm reading it correctly)? Subpoena Mozilla's emails? My gut says if this goes to court it will devolve into "he said/she said".

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#123

Post by weareconvo » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:10 AM UTC

malgorithms wrote: post #8

I wish I knew someone who used Opera so I could ask them to start boycotting it.

Maybe they feel that if they sue enough people, they'll earn enough money to stay afloat for another year.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#124

Post by billforsternz » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:23 AM UTC

Osiris wrote: post #61

malgorithms wrote: post #8

I wish I knew someone who used Opera so I could ask them to start boycotting it.

I use Opera on the desktop and on my mobile devices. So does my wife. I'm not going to stop using it because of a lawsuit, let alone for one that has not had any facts proven in a court. I really don't understand why people who don't know the facts of cases like this (i.e., you don't have an inside knowledge of the nitty-gritty), jump to conclusions to readily. Aren't we supposed to be a community of rational, though…

I think he was making a playful joke at Opera's expense, rather than seriously suggesting a boycott.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#125

Post by Osiris » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:29 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #98

Osiris wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Opera on the desktop and on my mobile devices. So does my wife. I'm not going to stop using it because of a lawsuit, let alone for one that has not had any facts proven in a court. I really don't understand why people who don't know the facts of cases like this (i.e., you don't have an inside knowledge of the nitty-gritty), jump to conclusions to readily. Aren't we supposed to be a community of rational, though…

> I use Opera on the desktop and on my mobile devices. So does my wife. OK. We just need to find the other 10. Why do people get out of their way to use some marginal browser when there better both proprietary and open source options available? Just to add to the web another slightly incompatible rendering engine? Or do they really like the gimmicky extras that Opera offers that much?

Or do they really like the gimmicky extras that Opera offers that much?

This. I started using Opera long before Chrome even existed. A basic thing: Hold the right-mouse button and click the left. It takes you back to the previous page. Chrome still doesn't do that.

It's the UI that I prefer, not the rendering engine.

The major reason that I use Opera is the built-in mail client. I have half a dozen email accounts and using multi-account login in Gmail is a bit of a pain. Having the email client built into the browser checks all my accounts for me (using IMAP) so I have one "Unread" tab open instead of 6 Gmail tabs.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#126

Post by tipiirai » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:30 AM UTC

Fuck Opera. Their software sucks. Now even more.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#127

Post by MichaelApproved » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:34 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #97

MichaelApproved wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some of the key differences?

For starters, Mozilla's lawyer has nothing to offer.

Wouldn't they have lawyers (plural)? I'd guess they also have access to lawyers who know the laws in other countries.

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#128

Post by kbenson » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:35 AM UTC

shubb wrote: post #62

kbenson wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's covered under copyright. The company owns the code. A trade secret is... what?

If you have an idea and keep it secret, it is protected from some reverse engineering or industrial espionage as a trade secret. Unlike a patent, if you competitor invents it independently, then it is no longer a trade secret. You are only protected against a restricted range of dodgy dealing, and then only if you took adequate security measures (employees under appropriate NDA, not obvious in your product, obfuscate…

That sounds reasonable, given that it's accurate.

It's also puts a bit more depth on Elon Musk's comments about not patenting technology developed within SpaceX[1], since the perceived patent infringers would laugh at any lawsuit and use the patents as a recipe (China, pseudo-state run companies therein, etc). They may not be patenting technology, but I bet there's quite a bit protected anyways as a trade secret.

[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-patents-2012-11

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#129

Post by stormen » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:54 AM UTC

In Norway, it's usual for employees to sign intellectual copyright waivers for all work done for their employers. If Trond developed parts of the CB browser and/or other intellectual property whilst working for Opera (during office hours), they could easily claim - and probably win - a case that parts and/or all of the CB browser rightfully belonged to Opera Software. I haven't read their lawsuit, I'm just saying that the case might be more complicated that one person's blog post.

There was an (in parts) similar case to this one in Norway about Nettby.no, the so-called "Fredrik Kristiansen vs Dagbladet" (Google it if you're interested).

Re: My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

#130

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 5:00 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #74

Osiris wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Opera on the desktop and on my mobile devices. So does my wife. I'm not going to stop using it because of a lawsuit, let alone for one that has not had any facts proven in a court. I really don't understand why people who don't know the facts of cases like this (i.e., you don't have an inside knowledge of the nitty-gritty), jump to conclusions to readily. Aren't we supposed to be a community of rational, though…

What I know from this and the news articles is that Opera has sued a former employee for $3.4 million because they think he gave secret information to a nonprofit. The guy hasn't worked there full time since 2006, but Opera has decided to seriously fuck up his life. What more do I need to know? Google has a thousand times as many employees, but when's the last time they sued one of them like this? Were I in Opera's s…

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