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Guy Who Stole AltaVista Source Code Working On Search At Microsoft
from the that-doesn't-look-good... dept
A man who was arrested last week for stealing AltaVista's source code is apparently now working on Microsoft's well publicized search technology efforts. AltaVista, of course, was the original great search engine, before it got confused and decided to "go portal" like everyone else. Apparently, this guy worked at AltaVista, but some time after he left decided he wanted to see how the product had "evolved" and discovered he could still log in to his old AltaVista account. He then downloaded the source code to his home computer. This all happened before he went to work for Microsoft, so the conspiracy theories about Microsoft stealing the code don't apply, but it does raise some questions about Microsoft's search technology.
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I'll bet the M$ project manager is really nervous
Depending how much of a contributor this guy was, I'll bet the entire team is sifting through their code tree checking for possible copyright infringement. Or they could just pull all modules he worked on and back out his changes. Must be playing havoc with their project milestones.
M$ got hit with this very early on when David Cutler (a former DECie) used code from the cancelled PRISM project to build NT. DEC lawyers had a field day and Bill got really tired of grabbing his ankles.
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Laurent did not get into AltaVista through his old account he broke in through someone elses. That is different. Saying his old account was still around makes AltaVista look negligent. It was not.
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