Microsoft opened a lawsuit Tuesday against Google and a former Microsoft executive that the search giant had hired to run its China operations.
The suit was filed in a Washington state court against Google and Kai-Fu Lee, former corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division. "Today Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a former executive and Google regarding breach of Microsoft's employee confidentiality and non-compete agreement," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said in an e-mail. "We are asking the court to require Dr. Lee and Google to honor the confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft."
Google has emerged as a top rival for Microsoft, and several notable employees have left the software giant for Google in recent months. The company is seen as an aggressive rival to Microsoft in areas including desktop search and e-mail, and the fact that its services work well with any operating system. Earlier Tuesday, Google announced Lee's hiring and its plans to open a China research and development center this quarter.
News source: C|Net News.com
The suit was filed in a Washington state court against Google and Kai-Fu Lee, former corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division. "Today Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a former executive and Google regarding breach of Microsoft's employee confidentiality and non-compete agreement," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said in an e-mail. "We are asking the court to require Dr. Lee and Google to honor the confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft."
Google has emerged as a top rival for Microsoft, and several notable employees have left the software giant for Google in recent months. The company is seen as an aggressive rival to Microsoft in areas including desktop search and e-mail, and the fact that its services work well with any operating system. Earlier Tuesday, Google announced Lee's hiring and its plans to open a China research and development center this quarter.
News source: C|Net News.com
Cont...
Previously, when game hero Carl "CJ" Johnson successfully wined and dined one of several girlfriends a certain number of times, she would ask him into her house for "coffee." After entering, the game shows an external shot of the house with muffled sounds of a couple emitting moans in flagrante delicto. PC versions of San Andreas with the "Hot Coffee" mod installed show what goes on inside the house, treating players to a sexually graphic minigame of CJ fornicating with his girlfriend.
According to its creators, the Hot Coffee mod merely unlocks hidden, preexisting code inside San Andreas. The game's publisher, Rockstar Games, appeared to vehemently--but carefully--deny that charge in a statement earlier this week. "So far we have learned that the 'Hot Coffee' modification is the work of a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," the company said. "In violation of the software user agreement, hackers created the 'Hot Coffee' modification by disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game's source code."
Rockstar's statement also claimed that the mod was the product of complex technical tampering. "Since the 'Hot Coffee' scenes cannot be created without intentional and significant technical modifications and reverse-engineering of the game's source code, we are currently investigating ways that we can increase the security protection of the source code and prevent the game from being altered by the 'Hot Coffee' modification," read the statement.
However, Rockstar Games' argument has been undermined by an increasing number of reports that claimed the sex minigame is in the PlayStation 2 version of San Andreas. Since the PS2 version comes on an unmoddable DVD, it cannot have any content added to it, although cheat codes--created either by the publisher or third parties--can unlock preexisting code on the disc. While devices such as GameShark and Action Replay Max can tweak preexisting variables in system memory with cheats, they cannot inject new models, animations, and/or code into a game.
To prove or disprove rumors that the PS2 San Andreas contains a sexually graphic minigame, GameSpot decided to test the cheat codes circulating around the Web on a sealed, first-edition copy of San Andreas. After acquiring the "Uncensored Hot Coffee" codes from the respected tech-blog Kotaku, we entered them into an easily obtainable Action Replay Max cheat device. After entering the "Enable all Girlfriends" cheat, we began the game and then gave CJ maximum sex appeal, via a cheat from GameFAQs that requires no external code.
After saving, our test editor had Carl visit the house of his nearest girlfriend, Denise in Los Santos. Carl then took Denise on a series of dates to the nearest bar. After a few complications--including being busted for two-timing by another of CJ's girlfriends--we completed a fourth date with Denise, after which she invited us into her house for "coffee."
The next screen proved that the PlayStation 2 edition of the game does indeed include a sexually graphic minigame, which plays almost exactly the same as the Hot Coffee mod. It begins inside a bedroom with Denise, wearing only a pink thong and a cutoff T-shirt bearing the Rockstar logo, performing simulated fellatio on CJ, who is fully clothed in jeans and a "wife beater"-style tank top.
After a few seconds, the minigame proceeds to semi-explicit simulated copulation. Although players can change the camera angle with the circle button, as well as cycle though three sexual positions with the square button, no genitalia are ever seen. To win, players must maintain a steady rhythm with the left analog stick to build up an "excitement meter" on the right of the screen. Fill the meter and Denise becomes very excited, telling CJ he is "the man" before the game congratulates you with the words "Nice guys finish last!" Let the meter drop to empty and the game admonishes you with "Failure to satisfy a woman is a CRIME!"
Given that the minigame is about as raunchy as an episode of Sex and the City, cannot be accessed without entering a long string of cheat codes, and takes several hours of effort to access, charges that San Andreas is "pornographic" may seem extreme to some. However, its existence does appear to contradict Rockstar Games' carefully worded statement blaming hacker mischief for the existence of the Hot Coffee mod.
so to say microsoft are scared is a little.. well... you know.
justebcause it's nto written about as much doesn't mean that MS don't get sued like this often, in fact they've lost quite a few employees that way. sucks more to be the employee whoquit his job to work at a competing firm, and then gets fired because a judge says so.
ought to teach a few people to stay loyal.
and Oracle have sued MS several times over this so stop thinking other companies are any better.
Being *right* and following the law are two different things. IANAFL but it seems to me that MS might have a hard time enforcing their non-compete against a CA based company since the state doesn't recognise this type of contract.
Here is more information.
Just as much as he would want it to be honored for him, which in turn he'll sue for it not being honored in his favor.
But I tell you I would not like to be in his shoes, is not easy starting a new job and going through this..... I've had my share of NCA and it's not easy leaving and starting anew. Specially when every job you'll go to will alway somehow be a competition to your previous job because you'll look for jobs in your field of expertise.
I'm a nobody, and I had to sign a no-compete clause for the previous company I worked for three years ago. Kai-Fu is a pretty big deal. The knowledge that guy has about their roadmaps is a goldmine for Google.
Not sure this is entirely true as MS is an actual company making actual money. Google is great and all, but the whole business model is still a bit gimmicky.
Long version: Both Google and MS are multi billion dollar corporations and are both search engines.
Silly! : P
Hell, if Microsoft was suing for some stupid nonsense reason I would bitch. For this case, no, it kind of makes sense. Quote:
Yes, you could say this is about competition, but he signed an agreement.
Now if that representative was lying about it, indeed I would begin the bitching.
Micosoft is opening an on-line music store and has a stake in MSNBC. Look at what else NBC owns as well. Can Dr. Lee ever hope to work for another media company? Microsoft has tried to buy PeopleSoft and has its own Database software. Can Dr. Lee ever work for a company managing business software or databases?
Intellectual property exists in all companies. With tech joining conglomerates, its going to be harder to ensure that you don't cut your agreement. Most won't be pursued, but to lock people so hard in this I think is unfair. If Dr. Lee were working on the Longhorn project, and Google released its own OS in 2 months I'd be worried. But the fact is, people are genearlly smart enough not to steal information and give it to a new employer. Filter out the ones who might be tempted to do so in the first place. You don't want them working for you anyways.
Dr Lee did not make a promise not to ever work for a competitor of Microsoft as you try to make it look like. No, only for one year. MS has the full right to sue, IMHO.
But there are cases, or maybe this was 'only' in the tech boom, where it extended past one year - 4 or 5 if I remeber. Maybe those employers were bad places to work. Shouldn't there be some kind of law to prevent these kinds of things from happening? I also wonder though if he had gone to work for CBS or CNN if he would have been pursued. He would have 'senstive' information about those issues. Or what if it were the DOJ? It would be interesting to see how far these contracts are binding. I think some amount of common sense should be used, but when lawyers are invovled, you never know.
unless secrets were told, i see this as another retarded thing.
The employies might as well be slaves, fought over and traded like cattle.
Very well-paid and pampered cattle, mind you, but cattle none the less.
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