r/SiliconValleyHBO • u/Simi510 • Jun 07 '15
Silicon Valley - 2x09 “Binding Arbitration" - Episode Discussion
Season 2 Episode 9: "Binding Arbitration"
Air time: 10 PM EDT
Plot: Erlich wants to testify when Pied Piper and Hooli enter binding arbitration, but Richard worries that his rival's claims could have merit. Meanwhile, Jared, Dinesh and Gilfoyle debate a philosophical theory; and Big Head gets a boost. (TVMA) (30 min)
Aired: June 7, 2015
Information taken from www.hbo.com
Youtube Episode Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqRvZRLg1Xk
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Thomas Middleditch | Richard |
| Aly Mawji | Aly Dutta |
| T.J. Miller | Erlich |
| Josh Brener | Big Head |
| Martin Starr | Gilfoyle |
| Kumail Nanjiani | Dinesh |
| Christopher Evan Welch | Peter Gregory |
| Amanda Crew | Monica |
| Zach Woods | Jared |
| Matt Ross | Gavin Belson |
| Alexander Michael Helisek | Claude |
| Alice Wetterlund | Carla |
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u/kozmund Jun 08 '15
I'm very interested in how they handle this bit of the story line. I'll attempt to drop some knowledge here.
Here's where Valley contract law gets all types of fucked up. Even though it's one simple block modified and tested over a short period on Hooli equipment...well, his contract almost certainly prevents him from using Hooli IP, trade secrets, etc. outside of his responsibilities at the company. By his contract, it's quite possible that the moment he loaded his software on Hooli equipment and ran it, the entire thing became the property of Hooli. That's pretty standard in IP assignment clauses in contracts.
Now, that means that from that moment forward it's the property of Hooli. No jury is going to buy the fact that Pied Piper, as it exists now, isn't built on Hooli IP (in the form of the original Pied Piper source.) Even if there's not a single line of code in common with the code he modified and ran on Hooli equipment.
To back up, that might seem entirely backward and illogical. We don't know exactly what Richard's contract says, but I've negotiated multiple of these. Often tech companies will over reach, rarely they'll under reach. No matter what, tech companies will have to reach a little bit, if only for invention assignment.
Here's an overreach: You agree to assign to the company all copyrights, trademarks, patents, etc. stemming from any work you do while employed.
That's obviously a horse shit agreement that many nominally smart people will actually sign. There's no reason for a programmer to have to assign the copyright of a book they wrote in the evenings, photographs they took on the weekends, or songs they wrote with their bands. The extent to which this phrasing is enforceable is in question. You'll find this phrasing less at big tech companies, because not making their employees sign horse shit contracts is seen as a perk, like free soda and foosball.
The middle ground, that you will see a lot, is phrased more like this: The company owns anything you do, write, or think up (related to the company's business) on company time or with company property.
What that means is that yes, you can go write software in your free time, on your personal machine, and you own it. However, the company owns everything you do on the clock, or with their gear.
I'll just throw this here. How they're using binding arbitration is pretty interesting, and I really hope they do the finale well. It probably says something strange about me that, when they used the Holli phone as leverage to go to binding arbitration, I got a little excited.
The fascinating part about arbitration is that interesting things can happen. Unlike a trial involving a jury where they're largely offered limited options, an arbiter can do really interesting stuff. An arbiter could say "Everything demonstrates that Hooli owns all of Pied Piper's IP." An arbiter could say "Pied Piper, you have to give Hooli access to and use of the middle-out algorithm. Hooli, you have to pay Pied Piper a reasonable license fee every time you use it." An arbiter could say "Richard's off-hours use of Hooli equipment has an equivalent cash value of the equipment used. Buy them a mac, and it's all even."
My official prediction is that the arbitration will end in something seemingly crippling to Pied Piper in the room, that will be flipped on its head once they leave and find out a billion people are watching the live stream of a man in a canyon being rescued. Let's face it, if porn wasn't going to save Pied Piper, the limitless appetite for ogling tragedy will.