Today, the Russian Internet literally exploded from about the searches in the Moscow office is a world famous IT company with Russian roots. After 15 years I suddenly remembered that a former employee of the company, programmer Igor Sysoev, developed the world-famous software for managing web servers. According to various sources, Nginx is installed on a third of all world web servers, and the company itself was sold in March of this year to the American F5 Networks for $670 million.
The gist of Rambler Group's claims is as follows. Igor Sysoev started working on Nginx as an employee of the company, and only after the tool became popular, he founded a separate company and attracted investments. According to the Rambler Group, since Sysoev worked on the development of Nginx as an employee of the company, the rights to this software belong to the Rambler Group.
«We discoveredthat the exclusive right of Rambler Internet Holding to the Nginx web server has been violated as a result of the actions of third parties. In this regard, Rambler Internet Holding ceded the rights to bring claims and lawsuits related to the violation of rights to Nginx to Lynwood Investments CY Ltd, which has the necessary competencies to restore justice in the issue of ownership of rights. The rights to the Nginx web server belong to Rambler Internet Holding. Nginx is a service product, which Igor Sysoev has been developing since the early 2000s as part of his labor relations with Rambler, therefore any use of this program without the consent of Rambler Group is a violation of the exclusive right», - To a businessman in the press service of the Rambler Group.
To resolve the dispute, Rambler Group did not go to court, as is customary in cases of this kind, but used a proven and well-functioning in Russia method of resolving disputes between business entities and turned to law enforcement agencies. As a result, as can be seen in , the criminal case was initiated under parts “b” and “c” of Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and these are the points “on an especially large scale” and “by a group of persons by prior agreement or an organized group”, which imply punishment in the form of forced labor for up to five years or by deprivation of liberty for a term of up to six years, with or without a fine in the amount of up to five hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of the wage or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years.
However, Rambler Group's claims against Sysoev were smashed to pieces by Igor Ashmanov, one of Rambler's former top managers who served as executive director in the early 2000s, a little later after the information about the searches in the company appeared. In a comment on roem.ru, he , what "when hiring Sysoev in 2000, it was specifically stipulated that he had his own project, and he had the right to deal with it».
“It was then called something like mod_accel, he gave it the name Nginx somewhere in 2001-2002. I can testify about this in court if necessary.. And my partner in Ashmanov and Partners and Kribrum, Dmitry Pashko, the then technical director of Rambler, his immediate supervisor - I think, too, ”said Ashmanov. He also explained that Sysoev worked as a system administrator at Rambler: “Software development was not part of his job responsibilities at all. I think Rambler will not be able to show a single paper, not to mention a non-existent work assignment for the development of a web server».
Why and why Rambler Group turned to law enforcement agencies to resolve the dispute and satisfy its claims instead of considering the case in a court of general jurisdiction or an arbitration court, everyone can decide for himself, based on his life experience and ability to analyze the processes taking place in modern Russia. But I, nevertheless, will quote the opinion of the lawyer Nikolai Shcherbina, which was in the comments on Habré.
“So (applying for a criminal case) is cheaper. In terms of time - faster if contact is established with law enforcement agencies. In addition, this is often done in the absence (if you need to go to court) of any evidence or the difficulty of obtaining them. As part of criminal proceedings, even if they refuse to initiate a criminal case, the police and the prosecutor's office will independently collect certain material, conduct an interrogation, find and interrogate witnesses and ... refuse to initiate a criminal case with the explanation “apply to a civil court.” But that's all: the materials of the criminal case, interrogations, interviews, explanations, witnesses are already weighty evidence, which the applicant can then use when filing a lawsuit in court. As a result, money and time are saved, the actions of the opposite side are suppressed, and in the conditions of Russian realities, mined obviously difficult to prove circumstances. Such is the pre-trial solution of the issue, the trial of the case.
What can and will be the consequences of this story in terms of the Russian Internet industry? Let's think and try to formulate.
- Deterioration of investment attractiveness of startups from Russia. Nginx American F5 Networks for $670 million. At the time of this writing, the news of the raids on Nginx has not yet spread in the local press, but as soon as it happens, the Nasdaq will definitely go down. Moreover, with this history and more in mind, investors will carefully weigh the risks before entering startups with close ties to Russia. The investment climate in Russia is already not very attractive, and after searches in Nginx, it will definitely not get any better.
- The brain drain will increase. Posts on Habré about one of the most popular on the site. After the story of the Nginx run-in, there will definitely not be fewer people who want to leave the country. Intellectually developed people, who are many among IT specialists, would prefer to live in a country where those who know the laws well have more rights than where those who are in power or have connections with power have more rights.
- Startups will more often be incorporated outside of Russia. There will be fewer people wishing to start a business in Russia. What is the point of starting a business in Russia, opening an office here, hiring people, registering intellectual property and developing software, if at any moment siloviki, arrest accounts and start interrogating. Because someone has an interest in your business, which has become big and important, and resolving contentious issues in court is long and tedious.
- There is no longer any doubt about the state's desire to control important online business. . Having established control over the company, Rambler Group, of which Sberbank is a shareholder, will, as a maximum, establish control over most of the servers located in the Russian Federation, and at least over a significant part of the servers on the global Internet. I will not give other examples, they can be searched in the news for the query "».
- Compromise of the Rambler Group HR brand. Developers are not laborers and oil pipeline operators. Personal reputation plays an important role, and if the reputation of a company's HR brand is projected onto a personal one, a good specialist will be one of the first to think about the advisability of being in a compromised company. “Personally, next week I'm going to raise the issue of leaving Rambler, because. I care about my personal reputation. And it's just unpleasant to work in an organization that does this. This is especially ironic, given that just a couple of days ago I spoke with the PR manager of the company and raised the issue of developing the company's technical brand. These are the words of one of the users of Habr, who works in the Rambler Group and published to the publication about searches in Nginx.
How will this story affect you personally? Please write your opinion in the comments. The opinion of the developers is especially interesting, but the opinion of the Rambler Group employees is even more interesting. If you are a Rambler employee and want to leave feedback anonymously, write to me personally in messages on Habré.
Source: habr.com