quote:

At a March 11 meeting, Levandowski told Uber that he had the Google disks. As Levandowski relayed it to Stroz, Uber CEO Kalanick "wanted nothing to do with the disks and told Levandowski to 'do what he needed to do.'" At that point, he took the disks to Works in Oakland, where he said he watched the disks get shredded. He said he paid cash and got no receipt.

quote:

Stroz Friedberg visited Shred Works to confirm Levandowski's visit. No one there recognized a picture of Levandowski. A manager couldn't find any receipt from March 2016 with Levandowski's name on it, including any receipt from March 11, the day he said he went to Shred Works. The manager did find a receipt from March 14, 2016 that indicated five disks were destroyed and paid for in cash. The signature on that receipt was illegible.

quote:

Levandowski also claimed that he had paid in cash and had not received a receipt. But the shredding facility told investigators that “all destructions are recorded on a triplicate, carbon-copy receipt” with details about date, time, service and payment. Although investigators did find a record of five disks being destroyed and paid for in cash, the shredding happened on an entirely different day in March, and the signature was “illegible.”

quote:

The report implies a few times that their subjects purposefully obstructed their investigation. It notes that they could not examine Colin Sebern’s — the chief operating engineer — iPhone, because it was encrypted. “During his interview, Sebern provided Stroz Friedberg with a list of possible passwords, but none of them worked.” They did examine Sebern’s MacBook Pro, and found that “interestingly, 57 gigabytes of additional free space” became available right before his interview with Stroz Friedberg.

quote:

The investigation also found that Lior Ron had deleted a file labeled “Chauffer win plan.docx” from his computer shortly before his interview, a move that Stroz drily described as “poor judgment given the protocol in place.” (Chauffeur was the name of Google X’s self-driving car project, a team that Ron, Levandowski, and many others at Otto came from.)

quote:

For one of those employees, Lior Ron, Stroz found multiple Internet searches from early 2016 regarding data destruction, including searches on "how to secretly delete mac files," "secure delete of trash on mac," and "how to permanently delete google drive files from my computer."

Odddzy posted:

I'm not familiar with the case, why would they try and erase that stuff? Why are they being sued?

chitoryu12 posted:

They stole self-driving car technology. This guy was trying to destroy the evidence.

Fantastic Flyer posted:

If I remember correctly, Uber headhunted a higher-up in Google's autonomic vehicle division and it seems he may have given Uber trade secrets relating to Google's research

Ariong posted:

Important addendum: “from Google.” They stole self-driving car technology from Google.

Doggles posted:

quote:

and "how to permanently delete google drive files from my computer."

Besesoth posted:

How does a person think it's wise to a) steal from Google and b) then store the stolen files on Google Drive?

Besesoth posted:

epenthesis posted:

Somehow this thread has passed 1200 pages without one mention of the vintage story of Blair Hornstine, one of the first people to have their lives destroyed by the power of internet hatred. (Link is to an update; full story is at the bottom.)

Wheat Loaf posted:

I feel like this is something I read about years ago then forgot all about. It seems sort of familiar. I wish there was a sort of "Where are they now?" resource for all these weird happenings of the past 20 years or so, because the public eye focuses so intensely and narrowly on them for what's really a very brief period then they're more or less forgotten. That being said, when the people involved are still alive, maybe it's not fair on them.

What about the woman who tried to hire a hitman to bump off a kid's parents so her own daughter would have an advantage in a dancing or cheerleading competition, for instance?

Ariong posted:

Important addendum: "from Google." They stole self-driving car technology from Google.

Ariong posted:

Important addendum: "from Google." They stole self-driving car technology from Google.

quote:

Then, in December 2016, Waymo received evidence suggesting that Otto and Uber were actually using Waymo’s trade secrets and patented LiDAR designs. On December 13, Waymo received an email from one of its LiDAR-component vendors. The email, which a Waymo employee was copied on, was titled OTTO FILES and its recipients included an email alias indicating that the thread was a discussion among members of the vendor’s “Uber” team. Attached to the email was a machine drawing of what purported to be an Otto circuit board (the “Replicated Board”) that bore a striking resemblance to – and shared several unique characteristics with – Waymo’s highly confidential current-generation LiDAR circuit board, the design of which had been downloaded by Mr. Levandowski before his resignation.

Wheat Loaf posted:

I feel like this is something I read about years ago then forgot all about. It seems sort of familiar. I wish there was a sort of "Where are they now?" resource for all these weird happenings of the past 20 years or so, because the public eye focuses so intensely and narrowly on them for what's really a very brief period then they're more or less forgotten. That being said, when the people involved are still alive, maybe it's not fair on them.

What about the woman who tried to hire a hitman to bump off a kid's parents so her own daughter would have an advantage in a dancing or cheerleading competition, for instance?

epenthesis posted:

Somehow this thread has passed 1200 pages without one mention of the vintage story of Blair Hornstine, one of the first people to have their lives destroyed by the power of internet hatred. (Link is to an update; full story is at the bottom.)

TL;DR: Harvard-bound HS senior has the highest GPA in her class, in part because she had been excused from gym (unspecified medical reasons) and was able to take additional honors/AP courses, which were weighted more heavily. School district considers making the runner-up a co-valedictorian. High scorer sues school district and wins, since the rules are clear. Student body and internet turn against her. Internet detectives discover that her "young people's perspective" column in the local paper was heavily plagiarized. Harvard withdraws its acceptance. She is so hated by her classmates that she is unable to attend graduation, and the sole speech is given by the salutatorian (who does go to Harvard in the fall). Her settlement with the school district just barely covers legal fees.

She might as well have asked the monkey's paw to make her valedictorian.

Thwomp posted:

I love the blantant-ness of the stealing/copying. It reminds me a lot of the Samsung v. Apple case where Apple laid out years of R&D into the tech that eventually became the first iPhone and Samsung was like "we looked at the iPhone and 'created' all our own hardware and software that also happened to duplicate Apple-patented innovations". Like, what did you expect would happen?

Data Graham posted:

Data Graham posted:

Thwomp posted:

I love the blantant-ness of the stealing/copying. It reminds me a lot of the Samsung v. Apple case where Apple laid out years of R&D into the tech that eventually became the first iPhone and Samsung was like "we looked at the iPhone and 'created' all our own hardware and software that also happened to duplicate Apple-patented innovations". Like, what did you expect would happen?


And this is like Hubris-101. The internet didn't need to come down on her but you've got to be aware enough of your own situation to not put your foot in your mouth. Just accept a co-valedictorian and move on to Harvard. It's not like Harvard cares you were co-valedictorian, you're already in.

Tip Shades posted:

https://www.andthatmanwasalberteinstein.com

Randaconda posted:

Hmmm yes, such ground-breaking designs as "rounded corners".

Toast Museum posted:

Pretty bummed that this doesn't lead to an STDH compilation.

GrandpaPants posted:

Rep. Tim Murphy—pro-life congressman—urged mistress to get an abortion & privately denounced own anti-abortion views

epenthesis posted:

Somehow this thread has passed 1200 pages without one mention of the vintage story of Blair Hornstine, one of the first people to have their lives destroyed by the power of internet hatred. (Link is to an update; full story is at the bottom.)

TL;DR: Harvard-bound HS senior has the highest GPA in her class, in part because she had been excused from gym (unspecified medical reasons) and was able to take additional honors/AP courses, which were weighted more heavily. School district considers making the runner-up a co-valedictorian. High scorer sues school district and wins, since the rules are clear. Student body and internet turn against her. Internet detectives discover that her "young people's perspective" column in the local paper was heavily plagiarized. Harvard withdraws its acceptance. She is so hated by her classmates that she is unable to attend graduation, and the sole speech is given by the salutatorian (who does go to Harvard in the fall). Her settlement with the school district just barely covers legal fees.

She might as well have asked the monkey's paw to make her valedictorian.

Doggles posted:

And just think, the whole reason they got caught is because they contracted with the same vendor Google was using to manufacture parts. The vendor recognized the design, and immediately reported it to Google.

quote:

Attached to the email was a machine drawing of what purported to be an Otto circuit board (the “Replicated Board”) that bore a striking resemblance to – and shared several unique characteristics with – Waymo’s highly confidential current-generation LiDAR circuit board, the design of which had been downloaded by Mr. Levandowski before his resignation.

quote:

However, according to a recent court filing, Waymo also turns its secret lidar circuit boards into jewelry and gives them away to employees leaving to work for rivals.

From 2011 to 2014, Seval Oz was head of Global Partnerships and Business Development for Google’s self-driving car program. When she left the company that August to run Continental’s Intelligent Transportation Systems division, Google threw her a going-away party at which it presented her with distinctive, custom-made earrings.

The nature of these earrings was revealed last week in a deposition of Pierre-Yves Droz, a long-time engineer on the self-driving team. A lawyer for Otto Trucking handed Droz the earrings and asked if he recognized them. “Those… are early version of the GBr2 transmit boards,” replied Droz.

GBr2 stands for Grizzly Bear 2, an older version of Google’s lidar at the heart of the case. Waymo has accused Uber of basing its lidar on the latest Grizzly Bear 3 sensor. Droz went on to testify that the differences between the two versions were small improvements. “This is confidential… [It’s] not something we should give to someone, especially if someone is leaving the company,” he said.

Thwomp posted:

I love the blantant-ness of the stealing/copying. It reminds me a lot of the Samsung v. Apple case where Apple laid out years of R&D into the tech that eventually became the first iPhone and Samsung was like "we looked at the iPhone and 'created' all our own hardware and software that also happened to duplicate Apple-patented innovations". Like, what did you expect would happen?

IamnotJoe posted:

I also had my life ruined by the internet.

Phanatic posted:

On the other hand, it's kind of hard for Waymo to claim that those circuit boards were "highly confidential" trade secrets when they were giving them away as jewelry to departing employees.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/could-a-pair-of-earrings-hurt-waymos-lidar-trade-secrets-lawsuit


Reverse-engineering is entirely legal, and for you to enjoy the protection of trade secret laws you must actually attempt to keep those trade secrets secret. Theft of a trade secret is a crime, but if Waymo gives the trade secret chip away to someone and that someone turns around and sells it to Otto and then Otto reverse-engineers it, that's not criminal.


Did Samsung expect the courts of South Korea, Japan, and the UK to rule in their favor, and the US Supreme Court to reverse and remand the $400 million verdict the lower court had issued against them? Because that's what happened. Design patents are mostly bullshit (But I guess they're better than "look and feel" copyright lawsuits).

epenthesis posted:

Somehow this thread has passed 1200 pages without one mention of the vintage story of Blair Hornstine, one of the first people to have their lives destroyed by the power of internet hatred. (Link is to an update; full story is at the bottom.)

TL;DR: Harvard-bound HS senior has the highest GPA in her class, in part because she had been excused from gym (unspecified medical reasons) and was able to take additional honors/AP courses, which were weighted more heavily. School district considers making the runner-up a co-valedictorian. High scorer sues school district and wins, since the rules are clear. Student body and internet turn against her. Internet detectives discover that her "young people's perspective" column in the local paper was heavily plagiarized. Harvard withdraws its acceptance. She is so hated by her classmates that she is unable to attend graduation, and the sole speech is given by the salutatorian (who does go to Harvard in the fall). Her settlement with the school district just barely covers legal fees.

She might as well have asked the monkey's paw to make her valedictorian.