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thewebguydyesterday at 9:48 PM1 replyview on HN

> Can you share an example or two of where something like this has ever happened to one of the largest companies in the world?

Waymo (Google) vs. Uber & Anthony Levandowski. Google was granted an injunction that ordered Uber to immediately halt all development on self driving tech.

Apple also bankrupted Pystar for stealing trade secrets.

Levandowski would have served actual jail time if he didn't get a pardon.

Property rights and trade secret laws don't just magically vanish because a company has government contracts or a high valuation.


Replies

senordevnyctoday at 12:18 AM

That’s not true! Only Levandowski was barred from working on self-driving, the judge specifically elected NOT to force Uber to stop all self-driving work [1], let alone stop all software work, let alone this being anything that was a mortal threat to Uber. Uber was also worth about $50 billion at the time, about 1/20th the size of OpenAI.

The point isn’t that an injunction is impossible, but the idea that Apple will get an injunction that shuts down all software deployments at OpenAI, leading to the end of the company, is pure fantasy.

1. https://www.wired.com/2017/05/uber-waymo-injunction/