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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday December 14 2019, @06:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the follow-the-rubles dept.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/12/13/russia-nginx-fsb-raid-a68606

Russian police raided the Moscow offices of a popular U.S.-owned web server over a Russian search engine giant's ownership claim of its source code, Forbes Russia reported Thursday.

Authorities raided Nginx's Moscow office based on a copyright infingement claim by Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut's Cyprus-registered investment vehicle Lynwood, Forbes Russia cited an unnamed source at the web server as saying. Mamut became part owner of Russia's 1990s-era search giant Rambler with fellow oligarch Vladimir Potanin in 2013 and bought out Potanin's stake three years later.

"We found that Rambler Internet Holding's exclusive right to the Nginx web server has been violated by the actions of third parties," Rambler's spokesperson told Forbes.

"In this regard, Rambler Internet Holding ceded the rights to bring claims and lawsuits linked to rights violations toward Nginx to Lynwood Investments CY Ltd," it continued.

Authorities estimate Rambler's losses from the alleged copyright infringement at 51.4 million rubles ($820,000), according to a copy of a criminal case cited by Forbes and other news outlets.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:41AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:41AM (#931976)

    So Rambler's claim is essentially that because Sysoev was an employee 15+ years ago when he started Nginx on his own time, they own everything forever. Of course they waited until it was the most popular web server in the world before speaking up. Sounds legit.
    ZDNet has an article as well. https://www.zdnet.com/article/russian-police-raid-nginx-moscow-office/ [zdnet.com]

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:59AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:59AM (#931980)

      If Sysoev loses the ownership case he should sue for 15 years of backpay.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:10AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:10AM (#931984)

        I'm sure they'll get right on that after they've confiscated and sold everything he owns to pay his 'debts'.

    • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Sunday December 15 2019, @01:37AM (1 child)

      by stretch611 (6199) on Sunday December 15 2019, @01:37AM (#932233)

      essentially that because Sysoev was an employee 15+ years ago when he started Nginx on his own time, they own everything forever.

      Sounds like something US companies would do as well.

      Before you criticize this answer, maybe you should go an re-read your own employment contract. As part of many standard tech company contracts is the non-compete clause. Part of it is that things you do even on your own time are owned by the company you work for.

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @07:32AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @07:32AM (#932729)

        Part of it is that things you do even on your own time are owned by the company you work for.

        Mine's fine for that.

        I've seen some contracts with such clauses and got them removed - the hiring party was fine with it. What you have to understand is sometimes it's more of the lawyer's idea than the employer's idea. Think of it from the lawyer's perspective - it might be better just in case to put such clauses in.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:31AM (11 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:31AM (#931986) Journal

    Alexander Mamut is a Jew, and a member of the Yeltsin clan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mamut [wikipedia.org]
    And since he resides in Kensington, London, I smell the Anglosphere not far behind this violent takeover of the successful Russian enterprise.

    --
    Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:49AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:49AM (#931987)

      is it a takeover?
      would USA and the world agree to what this plutocrat is claiming? or maybe nginx will be untouchable for russians, and maybe allies, only?

      • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:42PM

        by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:42PM (#932016) Journal

        Certainly. Expect DMCA-based extortion worldwide, that's how imperialist rule of law works.

        --
        Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Saturday December 14 2019, @11:32AM (6 children)

      by loonycyborg (6905) on Saturday December 14 2019, @11:32AM (#932005)

      So basically a Brit wants to destroy an opensource project made by a US(it's not actually registered in Russia) company. Russians are going to be merely victims here, along with entire opensource community.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:34PM (#932014)

        You should have listened to Larry Ellison and stuck to Oracle... no question of ownership there.

      • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:49PM (4 children)

        by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:49PM (#932018) Journal

        FOSS can prevail with nginx, but only if the project is forked sufficiently many times and starts mutating, very soon. Nginx itself is a strategic component now, that's is why this is happening.
        Otherwise, Rothschilds will kill the openness of it to secure monetization.

        --
        Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by loonycyborg on Saturday December 14 2019, @01:12PM (1 child)

          by loonycyborg (6905) on Saturday December 14 2019, @01:12PM (#932026)

          Forking won't help. If somehow those claims are found legitimate then all forks will be illegal derivative works, if not then status quo returns and thus no point in forking.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:46PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:46PM (#932133)

            well this is scary as shit. i'm going to wake up with cold sweats about apache tonight!

        • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by exaeta on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:07PM (1 child)

          by exaeta (6957) on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:07PM (#932145) Homepage Journal
          Black box reimplementation is possible. NGINX is not that complex a bit of software. A small team could redo it in a few months.
          --
          The Government is a Bird
          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday December 15 2019, @08:05AM

            by Bot (3902) on Sunday December 15 2019, @08:05AM (#932328) Journal

            And in this case, if APIs are deemed copyrightable you are fucked. This means when I hear the phrase "copyright on API" I reach for my revolver.

            What this case would end up in IF the russian guy had a non competition clause and we were in a just world:

            Plutocrat sues the world for the use of nginx.
            The world awards X for the use of nginx and 2X for attempting a submarine use of nginx branded as open source. They should have known in advance, if they didn't they can sue only when they made it clear that nginx is not FOSS.
            The world rewrites all stuff from the time guy was employed or switched to another browser. Those with static sites smile. The others, less.

            --
            Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:59PM (1 child)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:59PM (#932021) Journal
      Such quality of reasoning. Dude is a Jew and lives in London, hence it's the "Anglosphere" causing trouble.

      All the action is taking place in Russia, enforced by Russia law and authorities. If there's anything actually wrong with the situation, Russia needs to take some of the blame.
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @01:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @01:18PM (#932027)

        I agree Jewsphere would be more appropriate :D

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @06:15PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @06:15PM (#932100)

    We already had something like this in open source. It was with KiCAD and all I know is that it led to KiCAD having no working auto-routing engine. Generally, the same thing: Guy works as some engineer or other designer, makes some project, company claims that it's their as it was made during time he was employed with no such things in the contract.
    It looks that the answer "fight against being a slave" is too leftist for some free market maniacs.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:50PM (#932135)

      people need to sack up and start dropping lawyers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:25PM (#932149)

        The people that get hit by this generally can't afford the lawyers it would take to defend themselves. The companies doing it already have legal teams on staff so their cost is marginal.

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