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AMD sues 4 ex-employees for leaking docs; includes next-gen console contract head

A

androvsky

Member
Discovered via slashdot:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...t-former-employees-for-alleged-document-theft

AMD has filed (and been granted) a request for immediate injunctive relief against multiple former employees that it alleges stole thousands of confidential documents. Named in the complaint are Robert Feldstein, Manoo Desai, Nicholas Kociuk, and Richard Hagen. All four left AMD to work at Nvidia in the past year. The loss of Feldstein was particularly noteworthy, as he’d been the head of AMD’s console initiatives for years. Feldstein was behind the work that landed AMD the Wii U, PS4, and Xbox Durango.
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Well, that's gonna make a mess of next-generation if those docs got out in time for all the console makers to see what the others were planning...
 
Karak

Karak

Member
Thanks for making the thread!

Honestly it will take years to come to a head. That shit is crazy train.

And that is some next generation espionage going on.
 
C

Can Crusher

Banned
I'll just highlight this

Furthermore, the company states that it has evidence that Hagen and Feldstein directly recruited Desai and Kociuk as well as attempted to solicit other employees from AMD. It then details the contents of specific folders and emails that were apparently transferred to external storage, and the list is pretty damning. Desai and Kociuk discussed how to eliminate evidence of transfer from their AMD systems. The named defendants ran Google searches for how to copy and delete large numbers of documents. Over 150,000 documents related to AMD desktop and laptop design were transferred before Kociuk turned in his resignation to AMD.
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M

Mindlog

Member
It won't be of much use to NVidia. They're making progress with their hardware. Learning how not to be a shitty partner is something they'll have to steal elsewhere.

There will be suits. Well more suits. Lots of suits.
 
A

androvsky

Member
There's some interesting commentary floating around. AMD apparently has good specifics on many aspects of this case, so they're not firing blindly here. The strange thing is no one's mentioned as a recipient, even though all four wound up working for Nvidia.

But they obviously stole the documents for a reason, so surely they were planning on selling them to someone? It's possible they offered them to Nvidia, who simply turned around and turned them in. Wouldn't be the first time something like that's happened.

In 2008, an engineer named Biswamohan Pani took a job with AMD while working for Intel — and began stealing documents from Santa Clara with the intent of leaking them to AMD. In that case, AMD claimed to have no knowledge of the theft, cooperated fully with the ensuing investigation, and was never named as party or beneficiary of the rogue engineer’s actions.
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Y

yellow submarine

Member
Do people not know how to conduct corporate espionage anymore? WHAT THE FUCK are you doing searching for "HOW TO DELETE LARGE NUMBERS OF FILES WITHOUT DETECTION" at work!?! And then send emails incriminating each other on the same corporate system. Hasn't anyone heard of keeping this shit off the record?

Obligatory 'The Wire' reference: NIGGA IS YOU TAKING NOTES ON A CRIMINAL FUCKING CONSPIRACY?.gif


/smh
 
N

nib95

Banned
I feel like every few months I'm reading something that implicates further shadyness from Nvidia. Price fixing, paying companies off for exclusive options or skewed performance with devs, paid shills in forums and all sorts. I hope AMD survive, because I'd be willing to forfeit Nvidia performance advantages to support AMD.
 
A

antonz

Member
Sheesh NVidia. All you had to do was be less of a douchebag to console makers and maybe you'd still have contracts. This is going to bite ya in the ass
 
Y

yellow submarine

Member
saunderez said:
Really, if IT isn't in on it you're not covering your tracks. You may think you are but you don't really know whats going on behind the scenes. Letting anything travel through the corporate network is stupidity.
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Seriously. It's like those dumbasses you hear about watching copious amounts of PORN on the company network, on company issued equipment in the middle of the goddamn day. And their titles usually have "Senior" and "Director" somewhere in them.
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
Shouldn't they sue Nvidia as well? Unless of course it was Nvidia that ratted them out; possible? Maybe. Maybe not.

I hate Nvidia with a passion, and this is further boiling the hate.
 
G

Gorillaz

Member
Oh shit.....We always joke about console espionage and ninja's and shit like that but this is pretty bad.

And they ALL ARE GOING TO NVIDIA? uh boy.


Rumor wise it will be even more disastrous. The real info can be out there yet everyone could just twist info around creating smokescreens for everyone.
 
T

thuway

Member
Yeap, there is truth to our rumors about Orbis and Durango. I wonder if any of this has to do with Sweetvar26.
 
S

saunderez

Member
yellow submarine said:
Seriously. It's like those dumbasses you hear about watching copious amounts of PORN on the company network, on company issued equipment in the middle of the goddamn day. And their titles usually have "Senior" and "Director" somewhere in them.
Click to expand...

I catch people breaking company policy almost every day at work. If I gave a crap I could get a lot of people fired. But as long as they aren't wasting my bandwidth I leave it to their managers to supervise their own staff. They're so oblivious to what they're doing and the effects it can have on their employment.
 
A

androvsky

Member
shagg_187 said:
Shouldn't they sue Nvidia as well?

I hate Nvidia with a passion, and this is further boiling the hate.
Click to expand...

Well, like I said above, Nvidia might have turned them in.

If for no other reason they realized those people were going to get caught anyway.
 
JordanN

JordanN

Banned
Feldstein was behind the work that landed AMD the Wii U, PS4, and Xbox Durango.
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Wait, how do they know AMD is working on PS4 and Durango*?

*I know rumors state it but the website posts it with confidence.
 
iamvin22

iamvin22

Industry Verified
thuway said:
Yeap, there is truth to our rumors about Orbis and Durango. I wonder if any of this has to do with Sweetvar26.
Click to expand...


16m5wk.gif
 
G

Gorillaz

Member
Been saying Sweetvar26 is one of the few guys on here that actually Knew what was up. He posted that shit a little too nonchalant, then just was silenced/post deleted
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
BUH BUH TEH MICROSOFT MAFIA!

All this talk about leaks today is sure entertaining.
 
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