Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by creato on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @02:22PM
(#20812870)
> I feel like most software engineers don't really take intellectual property all that seriously. Most will not think twice about backing up emails when leaving the company which might contain code diffs, design docs, etc.
You can't be serious. I would never think of doing this, and I can't imagine who would.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by P_I_Staker on Wednesday August 28, 2019 @01:49PM
(#20822184)
You might be surprised. Some people don't give a rats ass about IP, including software engineers. I definitely wouldn't say most, though.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by bifrost on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @02:45PM
(#20813134)
You'd be a rare bird.
Most employees don't even bother to not pirate software, look at porn or whatever on their work laptops. Its somewhat hilarious.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by azylman on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @03:38PM
(#20813650)
You're comparing apples to oranges.
I know a lot of engineers at a lot of companies who look at porn on their work laptops (which isn't illegal). I don't know a single engineer who would take documents from their previous company to their new company (which is very illegal).
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by P_I_Staker on Wednesday August 28, 2019 @01:46PM
(#20822153)
Not rare at all in the software industry, is very common. I'd say people are more split than OPs letting on, but plenty of software engineers are extremely serious about IP.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by rongenre on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @02:40PM
(#20813087)
It's red-line different to take one's skills and know-how and experiences with you than to copy documents and designs from one's current employer and take them to a new gig, especially at the executive level.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by lovehashbrowns on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @06:36PM
(#20815140)
> Most will not think twice about backing up emails when leaving the company which might contain code diffs, design docs, etc.
Why would you even do that? I don't get the purpose of that. The email backups are worthless at that point--you can't reference them later, you'd have no reason to refer to them later, and backing up emails for a previous employer isn't your responsibility.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets
by dannykwells on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @02:49PM
(#20813174)
I user name gives it away. Obviously no one agrees here.
Is it really that common?
I feel like most software engineers don't really take intellectual property all that seriously. Most will not think twice about backing up emails when leaving the company which might contain code diffs, design docs, etc.
Friends from different companies usually talk about internal system designs and technical problems pretty freely. One of the circles I hang out with even backup and share the interview question database from every company they've been at.
So while it's probably crossing a line, it's still not something I expect they will ever get sued for, let alone criminally charged. (This is in contrast with friends from the finance industry who are a lot more tightlipped about everything and you do hear stories about regular employees getting sued)