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On Tuesday, Zynga sued two of its former employees. The company claims they stole confidential information and took it to their new employer, rival social gaming startup, Scopely.
Massimo Maietti and Ehud Barlach worked as higher-up employees for the San Francisco-based Zynga until they left in July and September, respectively. Scopely, which makes Dice with Buddies, Wheel of Fortune Free Play, and others, is also named as a co-defendant in the case.
According to Zynga's 28-page civil complaint, Maietti was the creative director on "one of Zynga's most ambitious soon-to-be released games, which goes by the code name 'Project Mars.'" Barlach, for his part, was the general manager of Hit It Rich! Slots.
As Zynga alleges:
On July 4, 2016—during the Independence Day holiday and just one day before he gave notice of his resignation of employment from Zynga–Maietti's Internet history shows that Maietti used the Google Chrome browser on his Zynga-issued laptop to access a Zynga-owned Google Drive account. His browser history shows that he proceeded to download 10 Google Drive folders that he had permission to access, but only as necessary to perform his duties for Zynga. The Google Chrome browser "zipped" those ten files and downloaded them to his File Downloads folder. Once downloaded, forensic analysis shows that Maietti copied nine of those folders to a connected external USB device. The external USB device was disconnected from the computer, and Maietti then placed the .zip files in the Trash, while they remained on the USB device. On July 7, 2016, over 20,000 files and folders were located within the Trash but were subsequently deleted in a failed attempt by Maietti to cover his tracks.
The lawsuit goes on to explain that those zipped files "have identical names to those in Zynga's Google Drive account" and consist of "extremely sensitive, highly confidential Zynga information," including "wholesale copying of the Project Mars folder." Those documents also allegedly included "hundreds of detailed design specifications," "unreleased game design documents," and "financial-related information."
For his part, while he was still at Zynga, Barlach is accused of engaging in similar data copying and even telling a Scopely recruiter whom to target at Zynga.
In response, Scopely recruiter Christina Dunbar responded to Barlach by text: "Thanks!! I was saving that for your first day! LOL I would be happy to hear about anyone you think I should be trying to speak with. Obviously I know you have that clause about not taking people so I am always careful. :-)"
According to the article, "Before returning work laptop, employee searched: "How to erase my hard drive.""
(Score: 4, Informative) by tangomargarine on Friday December 02 2016, @02:50PM
Zynga is that company that based their entire corporate plan on finding popular facebook games, ripping them off as closely as possible with their own versions, and then winning court cases against the original games. They're basically the kings of freemium Farmville-style gaming.
So the hypocrisy and karmic retribution is delicious.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"