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My former employer Opera Software has filed a lawsuit against me

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

#191

Post by sleepyhead »

kriro wrote: post #190

Do providers of other browsers that use tabs have some sort of licensing deal with Opera? Seems like they are suing over trade secrets based on Firefox tabs? Why are they suing the guy and not Mozilla, why are there no lawsuits against other companies that provide browsers? Feels like a FU-cause-we-can type of deal.

It is not based on normal tabs (which Opera was first to introduce to a browser). Well actually we don't know the specific yet but the blog post says "a Mozilla employee presents among others a feature named Search Tabs".

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

#192

Post by prof_hobart »

fakeer wrote: post #91
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…

Facts? I've recently developed some (parts) of Android framework for my current employer (which is as of now unique to this OEM phones) and I am seriously looking for a job change for various reasons. Now if my new employer hires me for the same role and I am asked to do the same thing again(and I'll mention this work on my resume and interview), I'll do it. Otherwise, what am I gonna do? Make railway engines for the…

> if my new employer hires me for the same role and I am asked to do the same thing again(and I'll mention this work on my resume and interview), I'll do it. Otherwise, what am I gonna do? Make railway engines for them or rockets or weave yards of fabric?

There's a big difference between your old company and your new company both asking you to implement (for example) a unified search box, and your new company asking you if you can think of any clever new features they should implement and you suggesting the unified search box that you've been asked to build at your old company but which is not yet public information. The former is likely to be fine. The latter is fairly likely to be breaching your previous contract of employment.

I've no idea which end of the spectrum this particular case is closer to, which is why it's not a good idea to jump to conclusions before the details are out.

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

#193

Post by sleepyhead »

dkrich wrote: post #114

I'll admit that I am no IP expert but I'm told that winning an IP suit is impossibly difficult and extremely expensive. To pursue it, you really better believe that you have a tremendous amount of upside (ie, deep pockets on the other side) and that you have a very strong case. You might say that they are "just suing for $3.4 million" and that they might settle out of court, but I'd bet that unless Opera has a really…

Actually $3.4m is not that little in Norwegian court. Amounts paid out from lawsuits are a lot less compared to what is normal in the states.

Also the judges here have very little knowledge about IT so I agree that winning the case will be difficult for Opera. My previous company had a lawsuit against a competitor and lost largely due to the judge having no knowledge of IT.

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

#194

Post by davesims »

coldtea wrote: post #181
davesims wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything I like about FireFox (gestures, tabbed browsing, a reasonable bookmark manager), Opera did first. I used Opera for years back when it flat killed Netscape and IE for features and standards compliance. I only left once FireFox implemented all of the same features I had come to rely on in Opera, PLUS developing its growing add-on ecosystem. Gimmicky? Marginal? Not in the least. Sure, Opera, as a foreign, sma…

> Everything I like about FireFox (gestures, tabbed browsing, a reasonable bookmark manager), Opera did first. So? Do you still use Mosaic because it did first most of the important things Opera does now? How about sticking with IE, because it brought as AJAX first?

If Mosaic had a current version with a rendering engine and enclosing feature set as competitive as the current Opera is vs. Chrome and FF, yeah I might. But, as I said, I don't even use Opera right now, only because FireFox's add-on ecosystem makes it the better choice. But otherwise Opera is still a competitive, high-performing browser, and completely reasonable choice for the discriminating nerd.

I never used IE. Because...IE.

Would you hypothetically not use a fast, super-compliant, feature-rich Mosaic out of an irrational bias?

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

#195

Post by michael_h »

3327 wrote: post #95
latj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many many many many many people who have stopped using Google products for various political and policy reasons. You know this right?

yes I am one of the many, check out owncloud if you want to download your data and setup your own cloud. Its pretty easy to setup. As for search, If you are not anti MSFT bing does a decent job on most topics, if you are, in that case duckduckgo, and many other engines out there are not too shabby either. I really want an alternative to youtube. Tired of being raped with 30 second ads for every vid I watch.

Inflating an advertisement to 'rape' is in poor taste.

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

#196

Post by TheDag »

bzbarsky wrote: post #108
niggler wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Mozilla corporation (not foundation) for-profit? Edit: according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation it is for-profit

The Mozilla Corporation is a "for-profit" entity, which mostly means it pays taxes on its profits, if any. The Mozilla Foundation, which owns the Mozilla Corporation, is a non-profit (which means several things in this instance, like the fact that it does not pay corporate income taxes and donations to it are tax-deductible). Every so often, the Mozilla Corporation, pays dividends to its sole owner (the Foundation).…

> All of which is to say that the term "for-profit" doesn't necessarily mean the entity's sole purpose is to maximize profit, or indeed to make one at all; it's simply a classification for tax law purposes...

Except the minor detail that any for-profit is in fact legally OBLIGED to maximize profit for its shareholders.

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

#197

Post by nollidge »

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…

> Aren't we supposed to be a community of rational, thoughtful people that use facts and evidence to backup opinions?

HA! You must be new here.

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

#198

Post by TheDag »

fakeer wrote: post #91
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…

Facts? I've recently developed some (parts) of Android framework for my current employer (which is as of now unique to this OEM phones) and I am seriously looking for a job change for various reasons. Now if my new employer hires me for the same role and I am asked to do the same thing again(and I'll mention this work on my resume and interview), I'll do it. Otherwise, what am I gonna do? Make railway engines for the…

I wouldn't worry to much. This is Norway, not the US, and our courts aren't quite as corruped-by-corporations, yet, as are yours. Do a little research on the DnB vs Røeggen case where the latter recently won a crushing victory in the Supreme Court, and ask yourself if there's any way that case could have been won in the US, against the largest US bank.

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

#199

Post by TheDag »

sgift wrote: post #155
coldtea wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

> Why do people get out of their way to use some marginal browser when there better both proprietary and open source options available? This is simple: None are available (for me). They are (take your pick for your specific browser): - Slow - Memory-inefficient (i.e. they either use too much memory when I need it for other tasks or they use not enough when I don't need it and they could use it to provide a better exp…

I've used Opera for a long time, and when I started using it it was simply alone on top of a lot of crap browsers. Now there are several decent alternatives, all of which are very frustrating for me. I work on multiple computers and have multiple computers at home. I'm lazy. Hence, no plugins should be required, so I get the experience I want installing just the browser.

For the most part Chrome or Fox or even IE10 behave similarly enough that I can almost use them instead of Opera. I think there's just 2 exceptions. Whenever I use another browser I find myself getting frustrated with 2 things: (1) Nothing happens when I "roll-left" over the mouse buttons (navigate back). (2) Tabs MORONICALLY cycle left-to-right, rather than in most recently used order. Both are show-stoppers for me, and I don't care if a plug-in can fix it, as long as Opera is otherwise more or less on par with the alternatives.

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