Stealing, not leaking.
It’s not like he was a whistleblower or something.
Should he go to jail? Idk. But if stealing food from a grocery store can put you in jail, then a ten/hundred millionaire stealing IP should as well.
It’s not like he was a whistleblower or something.
Should he go to jail? Idk. But if stealing food from a grocery store can put you in jail, then a ten/hundred millionaire stealing IP should as well.
Frankly he got off lightly. He was in a position of trust (and leadership) and he stole the crown jewels, and if he'd been successful it is very definitely eating Waymo's lunch.
If he had violated the CFAA to steal the documents he'd be up for considerably more time.
There were hundreds of engineers who worked on the technology that Levandowski stole. Let's not entertain this narrative that it's his work and talent alone.
IP violations are usually more like trespass than theft, but trespass is a crime you can go to jail for, too.
Wrong.
Both copyright and trademark infringement can result in prison.
A 10- or 100-millionaire stealing IP to get an n^th bomb-ass house/yacht/whatever might be heavily deterred by prior examples of imprisonment. Or, at least, certainly more deterred than a hungry thief.
If he goes to jail, people might be deterred from this particular type of anti-social behavior.
Why? They can be convinced that fame/n^th houses/yachts is not life.
But! If a food thief goes to jail, no one is deterred.
Why? Food is actually literally fucking life. You cannot deter someone from anti-social behavior that results in a cessation to hunger.
So, respectfully, I think you have things exactly the wrong way around here. Jail is a GREAT deterrent for white-collar crime, but a TERRIBLE deterrent for a many other crimes. We need fewer poor people in jail for sure, but we also probably need more rich people in jail.