NginX developer faces charges in Russia

[Denis Rakhmanov]

Nginx is an open source web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Igor Sysoev while he was working at Rambler group in Russia and first publicly released in 2004. A company of the same name was founded in 2011 to provide support and Nginx plus paid software.

As of August 2019, Netcraft estimated Nginx served 32 percent of all active websites ranked, ranking it first just above Apache at 29 percent.

With recent acquisition by F5 Networks for $670 million Rambler decided that they want some of that money too and declared that Sysoev stole their property. It is known that Rambler itself used that software for the last 15 years and not complained for it being a stolen property.

 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/12/13/russian-police-raid-us-owned-web-servers-moscow-office-a68606

https://www.zdnet.com/article/russian-police-raid-nginx-moscow-office/

 

Quote

 

Russian police have raided today the Moscow offices of NGINX, Inc., a subsidiary of F5 Networks and the company behind the internet's most popular web server technology.

Equipment was seized and employees were detained for questioning.

Moscow police executed the raid after last week the Rambler Group filed a copyright violation against NGINX Inc., claiming full ownership of the NGINX web server code. The Rambler Group is the parent company of rambler.ru, one of Russia's biggest search engines and internet portals.

According to copies of the search warrant posted on Twitter today, Rambler claims that Igor Sysoev developed NGINX while he was working as a system administrator for the company, hence they are the rightful owner of the project.

Sysoev created NGINX in the early 2000s and open-sourced the NGINX code in 2004.

 

 

In recent Interview with Sysoev's former boss, found here https://www.ixbt.com/news/2019/12/12/rambler-reshil-prisvoit-vebserver-nginx.html (sorry, only in russian) he told that there was a clause in Sysoev's contract allowing him to develop his software and that Rambler would not have any rights towards it.

 

Creating a big profitable business is a very risky in Russia. It is not the first time when big business was raided and sold for pennies to government or oligarchs, which shows that t is risky dealing business in Russia.

[jasonvp]

This is called, "Let's shake down F5".  It'll go nowhere, and it'll get there pretty quickly.

[Loote]

Sounds like Silicon Valley's plot

[Eniqmatic]

Hopefully this blows over, I absolutely love NGINX and especially NGINX support (yes paid), so would hate anything to happen to it 

[AnonymousGuy]

Lol, trying to claim ownership 15 years later.

[amdorintel]

14 hours ago, Denis Rakhmanov said:

Creating a big profitable business is a very risky in Russia. It is not the first time when big business was raided and sold for pennies to government or oligarchs, which shows that t is risky dealing business in Russia.

If putin or any of his cronies are interested, they will take it right then and there.

its the russian way nyet

[Founders]

Rambler decides Putin its foot down after 15 years was the right approach?

[amdorintel]

2 minutes ago, Founders said:

Rambler decides Putin its foot down after 15 years was the right approach?

da which is spelled да

 

[BachChain]

Copyright claim to police raid with arrests within a week seems a bit extreme

[justpoet]

"In Russia, software do you"

[hishnash]

1 hour ago, justpoet said:

"In Russia, software do you"

To be fair this is not un-hear of in other parts of the world (US comes to mind). If you are a software developer with a regular job it is very very important to get a supper watertight contract the explicitly permits you to work on your side project and even then its important to show that your side project does not overlap with the work you do on your main job.

You might have a bit of paper saying you can work on a projected named "X" but if the company can prove you used any: company equipment, time, or even understanding gained through your employment (such as attending a conference, or reading a book in the company libary) they can take your project away from you. 

of course they will not bother with the legal paperwork until you suddenly make (big) money from it.

[Kisai]

On 12/13/2019 at 3:11 AM, Denis Rakhmanov said:

Nginx is an open source web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Igor Sysoev while he was working at Rambler group in Russia and first publicly released in 2004. A company of the same name was founded in 2011 to provide support and Nginx plus paid software.

As of August 2019, Netcraft estimated Nginx served 32 percent of all active websites ranked, ranking it first just above Apache at 29 percent.

With recent acquisition by F5 Networks for $670 million Rambler decided that they want some of that money too and declared that Sysoev stole their property. It is known that Rambler itself used that software for the last 15 years and not complained for it being a stolen property.

 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/12/13/russian-police-raid-us-owned-web-servers-moscow-office-a68606

https://www.zdnet.com/article/russian-police-raid-nginx-moscow-office/

 

 

In recent Interview with Sysoev's former boss, found here https://www.ixbt.com/news/2019/12/12/rambler-reshil-prisvoit-vebserver-nginx.html (sorry, only in russian) he told that there was a clause in Sysoev's contract allowing him to develop his software and that Rambler would not have any rights towards it.

 

Creating a big profitable business is a very risky in Russia. It is not the first time when big business was raided and sold for pennies to government or oligarchs, which shows that t is risky dealing business in Russia.

"Good" Businesses in Russia are routinely destroyed by people who are less than an arms length away from the Putin government.

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corporate-raiding-russian_b_9991990

 

Quote

At the London anti-corruption summit last Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that corruption destroys nation states. He is right - look at Russia. Institutionalized corruption, the systemic merger of organized crime with law enforcement, and the practice of aggressive asset grabbing known as “reiderstvo“ ― hostile corporate takeovers - are the bane of Russian business. The recent exposure of the Panama Papers has revealed a murky world of offshore corporations from the Caribbean to the Jersey Islands to Lichtenstein, and their multi-billion dollar connections to the highest circles of power in Moscow.

For the last two decades, Russian-style corporate raiding has been on the rise, with the tactics used coming straight out of The Sopranos TV series. In a new report, “The Rise of Reiderstvo: Implications for Russia and the West,” George Mason scholars Louise Shelley and Judy Deane document how corrupt judges, prosecutors, police and government officials collude to rob many Russian businesses from legitimate owners.