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Comment by olympus | Hacker News Reader

Can a judge hold a company in contempt and fine them for disobeying a judge? Even if Uber isn't guilty of stealing IP from Waymo they have certainly been less than forthcoming. I'm sure that Waymo has done some shady stuff too. If a person withholds evidence or obstructs a case a judge can throw them in jail. What's the equivalent stick that the judge has to compel a corporation?

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I hear you. If I'm understanding you properly, you're just saying "Waymo has done some shady stuffy too" to establish that you're not a fanatical "yay Waymo boo Uber" person and are willing to see fault regardless of which side it's on.

Wow my comment was gravely misinterpreted it seems. I was asking if Alsup could fine Uber for their bad behavior. Normally a judge would throw a person in jail for contempt but you can't do that with a corporation. You can be held in contempt regardless of the outcome of the trial- i.e., even if Uber isn't found guilty would/could Alsup still fine them for slowing the trial down?

The part that seems to have been misinterpreted was the extra comment about Waymo. I was trying to head off the eventual comment where someone said that Waymo hadn't played 100% fairly either (it's possible, they have lawyers too). I'm not saying that Waymo is bad, I was just trying to head off someone bringing up some sort of "both sides are doing it, so why not fine both sides" argument.

You can jail executives for the bad behavior of a corporation. (I know of one case where executives of a medical device corporation were trying to ignore the FDA, and the US Marshalls marched them out the door in handcuffs. Not even the door of a courtroom - they arrested them at their office.)

What is the world did Waymo do that was shady here? Put something like that out there kind of need to back it up with something?

The backlash here shows that Uber has already been found guilty in the eyes of the public, the case isn't resolved.

Waymo have a team of lawyers too, and they can't all be saints. They are in this to win and set back a competitor's efforts.

In terms of shady stuff, do you remember how this case surfaced? Waymo was emailed Uber's design files by "accident." That's shady from day one on Waymo's side.

> "I'm sure that Waymo has done some shady stuff too."

Please point us to the memo from Uber that proves Waymo is operating a "Competitive Intelligence" team that looks more like a CIA Ops team than a Business Intelligence unit. I'll wait.

This "2017 and there's Bad Guys on Both Sides" bullshit needs to die.

Seriously, what's with this widespread assumption that because there are two sides, they must be relatively equal? The amount of harm this absurd belief has caused is immeasurable.

It's just another form of the law of averages, the signature ingredient in the rationalizer's cookbook.

That was most definitely not the point I was trying to make, nor was it the question I asked.

Why would a wholly-owned subsidiary that has no commercial products need a Business Intelligence arm? Of course Waymo doesn't have anything like that.

"shady stuff" != "competitive intelligence team"

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