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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

#201

Post by lanaius »

TheDag wrote: post #196
bzbarsky wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except the minor detail that being for-profit does not, itself, imply that the company has shareholders.

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

#203

Post by epmatsw »

mayurpipaliya wrote: post #174
lostlogin wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one have started shedding the Google products. Im slowly switching to alternatives. I find Google creepy company and don't like being sold. I have 2 products left to drop.

which are those two google products you are still using?

If I had to guess, Maps and GMail. I've been trying to get rid of Google as well, and there aren't really any good alternatives to Maps and changing email addresses is a hassle.

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

#204

Post by felipe »

TheDag wrote: post #196
bzbarsky wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That is incorrect. Any company must act in the best interest of its shareholders. A publicly-traded company must maximize profit because that's the implicit nature of it: I buy stock in the market because I want a return on my investment. But if all shareholders of a given company (say, Mozilla) want to produce something for the good of the Internet and not make a profit, that's up to the shareholders.

A "non-profit" status simply gives the organization certain tax advantages because the state understands that the organization is acting on the best interest of the community, rather than its shareholders. But if a for-profit wants to do the same and not take advantage of said tax benefits, that's up to the shareholders to decide.

http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/glossaryf/g/fiduciary.htm

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

#205

Post by Freaky »

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?

Going out of my way would be switching browsers when I'm happy with the one I've used since 2001.

I use Chrome for flash and video because its architecture grants it a good bonus in responsiveness, but that comes at a high cost in memory consumption. I also consider it unsuitable for general use because it's so painfully unconfigurable. I can't even have a vertical tab bar, so I'm always left guessing what tab's what by their favicon and the first word of their title - a pretty major deal breaker for me.

I sometimes give Firefox a go, and while I find the range and power of its extensions very attractive, it somehow always fails to quite click for me. I'm sure I could get used to it, but while Opera's giving me much the same functionality in what I consider a nicer package, and with more provided out of the box, why go out of my way to switch? You might as well ask why I still use vim when emacs is clearly so much "better".

Not sure what other alternatives you'd have me use. IE? Safari? Neither are realistic options to consider for obvious reasons.

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

#206

Post by AndyNemmity »

felipe wrote: post #204
TheDag wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

That is incorrect. Any company must act in the best interest of its shareholders. A publicly-traded company must maximize profit because that's the implicit nature of it: I buy stock in the market because I want a return on my investment. But if all shareholders of a given company (say, Mozilla) want to produce something for the good of the Internet and not make a profit, that's up to the shareholders. A "non-profit"…

Corporations in the United States are legally obligated to maximize profit.

It's not an implicit nature, it's an explicit legal requirement.

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

#207

Post by wesleyd »

AndyNemmity wrote: post #206
felipe wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is incorrect. Any company must act in the best interest of its shareholders. A publicly-traded company must maximize profit because that's the implicit nature of it: I buy stock in the market because I want a return on my investment. But if all shareholders of a given company (say, Mozilla) want to produce something for the good of the Internet and not make a profit, that's up to the shareholders. A "non-profit"…

Corporations in the United States are legally obligated to maximize profit. It's not an implicit nature, it's an explicit legal requirement.

I believe the requirement to maximize profit is a requirement of the stock exchanges, not a requirement of being a company.

A company can be created for many different purposes.

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

#208

Post by madsravn »

lostlogin wrote: post #146
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 for one have started shedding the Google products. Im slowly switching to alternatives. I find Google creepy company and don't like being sold. I have 2 products left to drop.

"[I] don't like being sold."

Are you serious? They are giving you a free and awesome product and you find it annoying that they earn money marketing to you personally? But not annoyed enough to completely stop using their products....

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

#209

Post by mikeash »

AndyNemmity wrote: post #206
felipe wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is incorrect. Any company must act in the best interest of its shareholders. A publicly-traded company must maximize profit because that's the implicit nature of it: I buy stock in the market because I want a return on my investment. But if all shareholders of a given company (say, Mozilla) want to produce something for the good of the Internet and not make a profit, that's up to the shareholders. A "non-profit"…

Corporations in the United States are legally obligated to maximize profit. It's not an implicit nature, it's an explicit legal requirement.

Can you provide a link to the law that says a corporation must maximize profit even when it's against the desires of its shareholders?

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

#210

Post by Ixiaus »

nawitus wrote: post #86
Ixiaus wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a myopic statement. Get off the bro-horse for a second. Opera has a lot of users! Their software, while not oss is pretty damn good! Whether Opera is being evil or not we don't know and can't know from one filed lawsuits, speculation, and public retort so stop jumping on the bandwagon.

Opera is definitely "evil" these days.

That's a subjective statement - I don't know enough to actually name them "evil" and I doubt you do too.
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