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Oculus: ZeniMax Claims Over Rift Tech Are "False"
An anonymous reader writes "Unsurprisingly, Oculus VR has denied claims that John Carmack stole technology when he left Zenimax. From the article: 'Oculus VR just sent across an email outlining in seven points what it views as ZeniMax's specious claims about Doom-creator John Carmack and Oculus' virtual reality technology. Last week, ZeniMax accused Oculus VR Chief Technology Officer (and former id Software Doom mastermind) John Carmack of taking "proprietary technology and know-how" with him when he departed the Rockville, Maryland-based Elder Scrolls and Dishonored publisher for a job with Oculus.'"
The company that makes Elder Scrolls? Did he steal their new crash every five minutes no matter how many years they spend developing the game technology?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
In my state, there is no such thing as proprietary know-how. If you don't want someone taking their experience elsewhere, you pay them more, if you don't like that, you're in the wrong state. Of course, this state also has a habit of completely nullifying non-compete clauses that are ridiculous as well, for instance a non-compete clause that extends beyond the state boundaries will almost certainly be completely ignored by the courts. My former employer found out the hardware when they wrote my non-compete as a nation wide non-compete. The court didn't say it was limited to NC or local, it flat out nullified the whole non-compete and released me from my obligations to it across the board.
They don't take kindly on trying to turn someone into a slave, which is ironic considering I'm in 'the south'
Stealing code or any data is a different story, but if Carmack had some special experience in his brain that he took with him, Zenimax could go fuck themselves.
Note: My state is not involved in any of this, just throwing it out there.
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Ahm.. that "boring publisher" was paying him to research and prototype VR headsets. This is actually a good example of why older companies are often nervous about researching new technologies, the pattern of paying people to do research and then they leave to do a startup is an old and frustrating issue in tech. Companies start to feel like they are bankrolling the research phase of startups but not getting a return on it.
Ahm.. that "boring publisher" was paying him to research and prototype VR headsets. This is actually a good example of why older companies are often nervous about researching new technologies, the pattern of paying people to do research and then they leave to do a startup is an old and frustrating issue in tech. Companies start to feel like they are bankrolling the research phase of startups but not getting a return on it.
They also canned the VR project before he left.
their fault for not paying him more, I have heard the bullshit line from employers before...
VP of engineering :"We cant afford to lose you"
Me: "Ok, they are offering me XXX you give me XXX*20% and I'll stay"
VP of engineering:" We cant afford that"
Me: "So it seems you CAN afford to lose me, as you refuse to pay me what I am worth."
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Me: "So it seems you CAN afford to lose me, as you refuse to pay me what I am worth."
Or even twenty percent of what you're worth.
So why does someone leave and create a startup like that anyway? Oh yeah, to get more money.
Not necessarily. There are a whole ton of nonmonetary reasons why people do things like this. For example, to get creative, technical, or professional control, to escape a terrible employer or working conditions, or (as appears to be the case here) to work on technologies or projects that interest you the most.
Pay is important, but isn't everything.
As a Maryland resident, I can tell you the politics out here lean very heavily towards copy-catting all the legislation Washington D.C. can come up with. A good chunk of Maryland consists of areas with a very different political feel, but those tend to be the parts of the state that "don't matter" as far as wielding influence that shapes the state legislation.
Montgomery County, for example, sits next to the D.C. area, and may as well serve as an extension of D.C. (Maryland actually sold some of its land to form the District of Columbia in the first place.) Most of Maryland's wealthy and influential live someplace in Montgomery County. Rockville, MD is a big part of Montgomery County, along with Bethesda, Potomac and Chevy Chase.
The area is VERY litigious as well. Everyone's quick to call a lawyer if they feel they've been wronged with anything from a public school's decision to fights over perceived workplace wrongs. So yes, given this climate, it's no surprise at all that Maryland would be really big on such garbage as the "non compete clauses".
Nice try, American McGee!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Oculus VR denied claims that John Carmack stole Zenimax technology. From the article: 'Last week, ZeniMax accused John Carmack, Oculus VR Chief Technology Officer and former id Software Doom mastermind, of taking "proprietary technology and know-how". Oculus VR countered ZeniMax's claims in a seven-point statement. John Carmack departed Zenimax, the Rockville, Maryland-based publisher of Elder Scrolls and Dishonored, for a job with Oculus, the Irvine, California-based producer of the Oculus Rift VR Headset.'"
Fixed the summary and the article it quoted from.
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I seem to remember a case from the middle 90's where an engineer for a ... phone? company came up with an interesting idea for a software-based filter. He talked to a co-worker about it who agreed it could be good, and took it to his superiors. They decided not to pursue it. A year later, he left the company, and he decided to go ahead and write that software - he knew a lot of folks who'd pay for it.
He was still 2 or 3 months from completing it when his old company heard about it. They sued him, claiming that he had the idea on company time, they could cite that he discussed it with a co-worker (so it was 'developed') and they claimed ownership. He lost his case. The judge had him not only turn over his source code, build environment, and all rights, but made him finish the product and deliver it to the company, with threats of fines or jail time if he acted maliciously (like making it impossible to run, or obfuscated, or anything other than delivering a finished product in a reasonable time frame).
Searching on google now for these terms just gets me lots of hits for 'bully bosses' and 'henry ford' for some reason, but ... precedent is out there. I just can't find it.
The upshot is this... If he discussed ideas he had while at Zenimax with anyone else, and those ideas were shared with Oculus, even if they're not patentable or Zenimax had no desire to implement them, they may have a very good case.
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so I may be bull-poopooing you inadvertently.
I can see this situation playing out in a lot of companies
Employee: Hey, I've got this [great idea]. It's innovative and likely to be popular. Here's how it works.
Corp: Sounds nice, but there's no guarantee it'll make money. Instead we'll just put out a sequel [game] 2 or perhaps introduce [new game] based on [game]'s existing technology. Maybe we'll get to your idea eventually
Employee: OK, we've done that. Now about that idea
Corp: Sorry, we'll need you to work on [game] 3 now. But look, it's got prettier graphics
Employee: I'm outta here. Nobody listens to my suggestions and so I'm going to [NewCorp] who is interested in my ideas
Corp: Hey, NewCorp implemented [great idea] and is making money off of them. We should sue because obviously they stole it from us.
> So why does someone leave and create a startup like that anyway? Oh yeah, to get more money.
That is an incomplete picture.
Gee, didn't we just have a story about older people joining a startup because they want to be freed of corporate bureaucracy, and want work to be fun again??
Ask Slashdot: Joining a Startup As an Older Programmer?
The idea that the primary mastermind behind 3D gaming and 3D accelerated instructions, not to mention one of the most recognized names in all of computing, would have stolen ideas from a "who's that?" company is just absurd.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Me: "Ok, they are offering me XXX you give me XXX*20% and I'll stay"
Proposal Accepted.
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