5 ms·
The bigger question is: can you get someone arrested for copying your startup software to some non-startup servers? We read lots about federal agencies involve
by gesman 13y ago
The bigger question is: can you get someone arrested for copying your startup software to some non-startup servers?
We read lots about federal agencies involvement in corporate troubles.
Where is the threshold of involvement? What makes corporation eligible for such a care?
- tptacek 13y agoWhat's the threshold of involvement if someone walks into my unlocked house while I'm out and steals my TV?
- WildUtah 13y agoWell, the police might send someone over to collect your statement and give you papers for the insurance company if your teevee is stolen. Or they might make you come in and do it. But they certainly aren't going to open an investigation and pursue the thieves. Likewise with your startup's trade secrets. But Microsoft or Goldman Sachs will get the attention of the FBI right quick when they complain. You would get some attention if you showed up dead with a gunshot wound instead of just missing a teevee -- if you're white, anyway. But if you show up dead in a car crash, the cops won't care once they scrape you up so traffic can flow. Police have a complicated set of social criteria they use to decide what to care about. Mostly they correspond to social priorities.
- tptacek 13y agoYou're surprised that a criminal act that can incur tens of millions of dollars gets the attention of the authorities? Not for nothing, but a significantly less serious crime than a B&E got an undercover police officer stationed in an apartment behind my house. I'm sure you're right that the average TV theft isn't going to make a federal case, but part of the reason for that is that most people don't make that much of a fuss over having their TV stolen.
- WildUtah 13y agoWhat does it mean to "incur" tens of millions of dollars? Microsoft isn't putting any trade secrets into Windows that are worth millions of dollars; they publish the object code to 500 million PCs, each one of which can decompile it all. A few hardware manufacturers may have contracts demanding M'soft protect their trade secrets -- the secret usually being all the patents they infringe -- by keeping driver BLOBs obscure, but I doubt that's at issue here. I don't think there will be tens of millions in fines, either. Maybe thousands and a few months in jail. Tens of millions (billions, really) may be all the salaries of employees that make M'soft a big name company that can call up the FBI and USA to get attention. But that's what I said before. It's a matter of social priorities. Also, congrats that your local police cared and had the resources to look out for your neighbor. Most departments don't have that level of resources. We had to work for months to get ours to pay that much attention to a convenience store that had some armed robberies in a residential neighborhood. Incidentally, I tried to make a fuss over a stolen teevee and nice camera once. Didn't help.
- briantakita 13y agoI once had $5000 stolen from me. The police told me to GTFO of the station and got really pissy at me. They also told me "it's a civil matter". Good thing corporations get special treatment. Nice country, this America.
- tptacek 13y agoWell... was it a civil matter? Who stole it from you?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- briantakita 13y agoA guy running a courier business stole from me. I was naive & in a desperate position, so I'd rather not go into details.
- fiatmoney 13y agoA good guess might be "once the corporation makes up single-digit percentages of GDP".
- b2themax 13y ago$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Its not that complex.