Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M • Hacker News Board

Re: Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M

#71

Post by mistercow » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 11:22 PM UTC

pavanky wrote: post #41

sudhirj wrote: post #2

Opera gets in bed with Google Chrome and then sues the other camp? I thought they were above all this. Either way, an idea for a browser feature is hardly a huge industrial secret - Webkit, Blink and Gecko have near-parity on features, and are competing more on speed. How would this stand up in court? Neither Google nor Opera have anything to gain from this - what could be the economic rationale?

> Opera gets in bed with Google Chrome and then sues the other camp? I thought they were above all this. They are suing their former employee, not Mozilla. > Webkit, Blink and Gecko have near-parity on features, and are competing more on speed The former employee is an artist and a musician. The article says he worked on UI related stuff. None of this has anything to do with the web engine the browsers run. You are t…

>I wonder what other conspiracy theories you love.

Is this really the tone of discourse we want here?

Re: Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M

#72

Post by steven2012 » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:46 AM UTC

marshray wrote: post #55

steven2012 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google funds basically all of Mozilla's budget, something like $300M/yr. Google does not consider Mozilla a rival. If they wanted to destroy Mozilla, they would just need to not renew their funding agreement.

Do you have any idea how much money Mozilla has in the bank? It's very hard to "destroy" a not-for-profit that has a substantial endowment.

One of my close friends works for Mozilla. I was told by him that they need to spend most, if not all of their money every year. So I don't think they have a substantial amount of money in the bank.

Re: Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M

#73

Post by mtrimpe » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 7:28 PM UTC

pyre wrote: post #68

sageikosa wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be nice to have the postulate backed by something other than proximity in the poster's posting, and the poster's speculation, however. While such wild speculation probably can't get you in trouble in the US of A, some European libel laws probably would require a little more than "seemed like it to me" as a reason to publish an assertion of an association.

This is an issue that I have with European libel laws. It's almost like they don't want you to be able to have an opinion and share it with people unless you feel you can back that assertion in court.

Don't worry. I'm European and I am certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that this won't get me anywhere near trouble under European libel laws. (Apart from the fact that there is no such thing as a 'European law')

First of all, European libel law requires a demonstrably false statement which 'seems to' by definition isn't.

Secondly, libel would be a civil offense so even if I were to be charged it would be the damage I caused to Opera at minimum (lowest value the judge deems to certain to have occurred.)

So basically only if I made a categorically false claim and it caused a demonstrable amount of loss (e.g. a contract with defined monetary value falling apart) would I be seriously affected by European libel law.

Re: Opera claims ex-employee took trade secrets to Mozilla, sues him for $3.4M

#74

Post by sageikosa » Thu, May 02, 2013, 6:08 PM UTC

mtrimpe wrote: post #73

pyre wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an issue that I have with European libel laws. It's almost like they don't want you to be able to have an opinion and share it with people unless you feel you can back that assertion in court.

Don't worry. I'm European and I am certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that this won't get me anywhere near trouble under European libel laws. (Apart from the fact that there is no such thing as a 'European law') First of all, European libel law requires a demonstrably false statement which 'seems to' by definition isn't. Secondly, libel would be a civil offense so even if I were to be charged it would be the damage…

0) I didn't mean European as a sovereign legal title, more of a categorical concept in jurisprudence; especially in those who have less of a lengthy run-rate with civil liberties (mileage or kilometerage may vary).

1) While the qualifying comment used "seemed linked to me", the original post had no such qualifiers and asserted its points without anything backing it. I admit its a bit pendantic, and in American usage easier to "get away with" on a comment board. If you were a US TV news or print outlet, you'd have to pre-frame the comments with "editorial" or "opinion", to cover your legal bases.

2) Yes.

3) Probably :-)