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Affinity Engines Says Google Stole Orkut Code
GillBates0 writes "Wired's reporting that a social networking software company called Affinity Engines has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that much of the source code behind Orkut, the search engine's popular social service, was stolen by former engineer Orkut Buyukkokten. They claim that he illegally took the code the he had written for the company -- which he co-founded -- with him when he joined Google and that Buyukkokten promised Affinity Engines that he wouldn't develop a competing social network service for Google. '"In its initial investigation, AEI uncovered a total of nine unique software bugs ... in AEI's inCircle product that were also present in Orkut.com," according to the lawsuit.'"
It was Affinity that was rejecting the neutral expert, and Google that was offering.
Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
This is true.
I get weird timeout errors. Stay idle for 30 minutes it makes you sign on again(such a pet peeve on websites), fine. But it was doing that to me for 30 SECONDS of inactivity.
2. The message boards are dead
3. Random error 500s out of nowhere. C'mon Google isn't supposed to break!
4. A total sausage fest.
a simple promise won't really hold much water in court.
Bah! Not according to contract law in the US...
Have a look here: A contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. The promise or promises may be express (either written or oral) or may be implied from circumstances. and here: Contrary to common wisdom, an informal exchange of promises can still be binding and legally as valid as a written contract.An oral promise can be just as legally binding as any written agreement.