What is going on with the moral and ethical values, and above all, the sense of legality and illegality of people on this website? The convict obviously acted illegally by violating the agreements with his former employer. Which part is not clear in this case? Acting criminally is a much higher burden of proof and does not apply here. Possible that people here often confuse criminal wrongdoing from illegal behavior?
Ha. Well....all I can say is the entire music industry has had to deal with this.... and accept it.... for the last 15 plus years. People can bitch all they want,.... but circling the wagons doesn't work. Its a whole new ballgame. And of course its not right... but it is what it is. Best to plan accordingly, cause all the bitchin in the world won't stop it. If it could, it already would have. While not apples to apples in this case.... as Sig pointed out.... stealing is stealing. :
It is a little easier to prosecute when you have a signed contract with the employee and you've been paying them, plus there's a little less sympathy than when the recording industry slaps a million dollar law suit on a 12 year old. But yeah, definitely something those of us who generate intellectual property for a living have to learn to manage. It's tougher for the trading companies because in many cases the code is almost the entire secret sauce. With an operating company you've got to also know how to run a business and be willing to put the work in to do it, which insulates us a little since almost by definition the thieves are generally lazy and unwilling to put the work in to build and run something on their own.
As I have said before, I can't make a grocery list without someone stealing it, drugging me, and asking me how it works.
the news story is bullsheet. more likely his lawyer gets him a few months of community service for 'copying' or stealing his former employers trading algorithm. These trading algorithms are a dime a dozen,,,people have no 'guilt' or remorse when they copy other people's code and copies and gives it away for free and publish it.. there is no 'stealing' copying and stealing is totally different things ask any criminal lawyer. there is no crime.
also, people who commit insider trading, market manipulation and money laundering don't feel what they doing is immoral and have no guilty feeling what so ever. however most people will feel guilty robbing an old lady in the street or stealing stuff in a retail store.
his 'crime' isn't in stealing or copying the code. his crime is when he was 'employed' he signed an agreement with the employer not to reveal or share the code outside of the firm or after he leaves or quits his job. his 'crime' is he didn't broke the agreement or contract. the actual copying of the code isn't a 'crime' as he didn't steal anything. most hackers are guilty of accessing computers without 'authorization' or 'trespassing' not the actual stealing of the code.
Yes, copying others IP without their permission (in fact strictly prohibited in writing in contract) and stealing is not different in most banana republics. Do you want to belong to the civilized part of the world that subscribes to the rule of law or do you want to munch bananas under the tree and, for example, justify extrajudiciary killings of drug addicts? It's a choice only you can make and generally the choice determines whether you almost surely end up in the shitter or whether you at least have a fair shot to make it in life.