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Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

nytimes.com

171–180 of 372 posts

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#171
post #143
post #53

The level of greed, hubris and stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. Levandowski was paid a bonus of $120 million while at Google, which is more money than any reasonable person will need for several lifetimes. This was actually a running joke at Google (while I was still there) to describe $120M as "1 Levadownski". Like Sundar one year was described as earning "only 1.7 Levadownskis" (he got paid $200M…

“Levandowski was paid a bonus of $120 million while at Google” God forbid an engineer get paid what he’s actually worth. If anything he should’ve been paid much more . The automobile industry is a multi trillion dollar industry he’d be be disrupting. Honestly, Google may have been paying him to “die” like tech companies do sometimes as rationale for acquisition: to eliminate competition. Maybe he picked up on it and…

So, how much would be be worth, alone in his garage? Everything on top of that is enabled by the organisation he was part of.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#172
post #104
post #53

The level of greed, hubris and stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. Levandowski was paid a bonus of $120 million while at Google, which is more money than any reasonable person will need for several lifetimes. This was actually a running joke at Google (while I was still there) to describe $120M as "1 Levadownski". Like Sundar one year was described as earning "only 1.7 Levadownskis" (he got paid $200M…

> Levandowski was paid a bonus of $120 million while at Google, which is more money than any reasonable person will need for several lifetimes. There is not and there should not be any hard cap on what is 'reasonable' in a lifetime. Maybe someone wants to make money so they can get their name on a wing of a hospital or fund their alma matter. Forget the 'good cause means it's ok' angle as well. Maybe you are ok livin…

[deleted]

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#173
post #44

"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…

> So this movement toward resolving such conflicts in the courts, instead of by companies competing to out-innovate one another, is very troubling. A lot of the things you cite were actually fought out in the courts. Motorola sued MOS Technology [1]. AMD and Intel have been in constant legal battles since their inception. The complicated question of Unix ownership started the famous SCO-Linux litigation. This isn't a…

And from all accounts Shockly was a hard man to work for.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps he's innocent? Perhaps. However, one of the ways prosecutor maintain a 95%+ conviction rate is to only pursue cases they are extremely confident they could win in court. And sure, just because someone loses in court or pleas out doesn't mean they are actually guilty, but it's the best system we have.

In particular, to bring a white collar case against an extremely wealthy defendant, they must feel they have a pretty good case.

Even then, it seems like they often don't. I just read Chickenshit Club on this subject and recommend it: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Chickenshit-Club/...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#175
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I stopped after people’s questions changed to “Uber, Airbnb, etc all succeeded because they broke the law. Why are ethics important?” and I had no real answer. You should go back to it, as those are examples of why ethics are needed more than ever. As someone in the "trenches" and who sees the damage done by them everyday, I'd suggest you can point to the trail of damage they left in their wake and the real lives th…

> In the case of Uber I would simply start with highlighting the number of drivers who now have criminal records as a result of doing nothing more than driving for Uber Do you have a link? I found nothing of the kind on google.

Here is a news article that maybe mentions a few arrests back in 2015 in Pensacola, FL.

https://www.newsherald.com/article/20150309/Business/3030999...

However, there are additional facts not included that are pretty egregious, including Uber being aware of the law and local law enforcement's position (I think they previously operated there and stopped), then in anticipation of spring break Uber recruited drivers from outside the county (including monetary payments for drivers to do this), they never disclosed the status of the law to the drivers, and within a day the first driver was arrested.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#176
post #63
post #44

"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…

> I live in a poor country which is poor mostly because the established economic powers are able to strangle new centers of wealth creation in the cradle, using the government and laws. Don't let that happen in your country. Is there any country in the world that still prioritizes freedom over having a massive regulatory state? It would surprise me.

Compared to some countries the USA does ask any Engineer from India about relieving letters and bonds.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So this movement toward resolving such conflicts in the courts, instead of by companies competing to out-innovate one another, is very troubling. A lot of the things you cite were actually fought out in the courts. Motorola sued MOS Technology [1]. AMD and Intel have been in constant legal battles since their inception. The complicated question of Unix ownership started the famous SCO-Linux litigation. This isn't a…

And from all accounts Shockly was a hard man to work for.

Indeed, but because of the legal climate at the time, his “Traitorous Eight” had the option of exiting. Today they'd have to put up with Shockley.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#179
post #9

Official filing: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-uber-self-drivin... PDF: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1197991...

> The prosecution is being handled by the Office of the U.S. Attorney, Northern District of California’s new Corporate Fraud Strike Force I'm curious if this explains the delayed timing... New agency team gets started and looks around for the biggest fish to fry. Everyone already dislikes Uber and AI is big right now so it's win-win. Smart move by the prosecutors if so. (Or it could just be a long process due to the…

IIRC, there was a criminal referral made by the judge during the (civil) Uber v Google proceedings. It probably took time for the grand jury to be set up and complete its investigations after that.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets

#180
post #44

"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…

>"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built.

Yet this sort of behaviour ceases to be described as individual acts of "greed" and "lack of ethics" when it's people from a certain country doing it. At that point it turns into "it's in their culture" and "we need to get rid of them".

Hypocrisy and double standards are America's favourite pastime activities.

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