
Employee tried to sell Yandex source code - tychuz
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/12/yandex-employee-stole-search-engine-source-code-tried-to-sell-it-for-just-27000-2/
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jzwinck
Speaking as someone whose coworker once stole our code, I predict the biggest
loser in this event aside from the thief will be the employees. Imagine
working at Yandex now. Everything is going to get scrutinized and locked down
until people can barely do their jobs. This is the true destructive power of
stealing source code: undermining morale at the company for years to come.

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coralreef
Seems like the real money would have been figuring out the highest weight
components in the algorithm and gaming SEO results for affiliate marketing /
landing pages.

But of course that would have taken a lot of work.

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joshstrange
Of course assuming he didn't have these skills ("a lot of work" is honestly
probably an understatement) someone on the black market might or have someone
they could pay who did have them. Also one would assume that some people on
the black markets would either run or have ties to scamming/SEO gaming/etc
groups making it valuable to them. Sure, not "tens of millions" as Yandex
implies but still a good bit.

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rodionos
I liked the joke on arstechnica that the best way to bankrupt a competitor
would be to give them our source code :)

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alexandrerond
Reselling such thing is a situation that can't hardly end up well for any
parties. Even when the algorithms are worth millions. I'd be surprised a buyer
would be willing to invest in it, study it and then turn it into a profitable
thing, even if it's sold really cheap or given away. In which case a clever
seller would never undertake the risks involved to steal it and put it in the
market.

In short, there's no way for this to turn out right (getting away with money),
but it can go wrong in many ways (like getting caught). This employee made a
terrible gamble.

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mlinksva
Source code without any permission to use nor any exclusive right to prevent
others from using maybe isn't worth much to any buyer, but this was black
market. Is access-only source code ever sold on the open market? How much does
it fetch? Or given that software is heterogeneous, what is some code that
would fetch a high access-only price if it were so available on the open
market, and how much, order of magnitude?

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e28eta
I think the disparity in valuations is interesting. To Yandex, the code is
worth millions. To outsiders, it's not even worth paying £27k, because it's
going to be much harder to get a return on that money.

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DrScump
He got a suspended sentence and no fine? Yeah, _that 'll teach him!_

