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Comment by pierrefar | Hacker News Reader

This is potentially a lawsuit waiting to happen: the team that did it for Amazon leaves to do it again on their own, and are marketing themselves as such. I can't see how Amazon will be happily quiet with this situation.

As a user though, I welcome the competition in this market.

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Unless/until Amazon objects with a legal basis, it's unfair to the team to assume this is a problem. Grant them the presumption they know what they're doing.

I do grant them all the benefit of the doubt. I want them to succeed as it would be very good to have more players in the market.

My question is when did the inconvenience of proving a real legal basis stop a big company attacking a smaller competitor? Hoover and Dyson is a good example, and in this case, it's a bit more personal.

Many companies recruit and retain good people by not being shits. They want you to be successful while you work there and after. I have little doubt these guys left with good blessings.

We should also be granting Amazon the benefit of the doubt unless/until they do something objectionable. Neither of these expecting-the-worst scenarios -- that these employees are facing legal troubles from former employer, nor that their former employer is likely to give them legal troubles -- should be assumed without evidence.

That some other 'big company' once before did something similar isn't enough to suggest there's trouble lurking here. Maybe it's enough to ask the earnest question -- "do they have Amazon's blessing?" But not predict problems -- "can't see how Amazon will be happily quiet with this situation".

The main page links a press release ( http://nimbula.com/news/2010/06/23/amazon-veterans-launch-co... ), which mentions VC investment (and beta deployments).

So, I'd assume due diligence, cleared by lawyers, etc.

They are located---surprise, surprise---in California. Non-completes and some other legal tools Amazon might use are non-operative there.

Isn't Cuil doing basically the same thing except with Google instead of Amazon?

Is that still being actively developed?

I try it out from time to time, but the Cuil blog hasn't had any activity in a while. The results seem to have improved over the past few months, but I haven't noticed any major changes.

Now it's http://www.cpedia.com/

That was my first thought as well. From Amazon's point of view, this is very much "Not cool, dude." I'm not sure at what point it becomes a legal issue, but it is definitely a dickish move.

You've been completely brainwashed ;)

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