Kier designing his own forum software?

Either way... I'm really just waiting for an excuse to dump vB now. I love 3.8, but 4.0 has destroyed my faith in IB and the direction they are looking to take.

 

You never knowwwwwwwwwwwwwww..........................

 

have you messed with IPB yet

 

Kier might have signed the clause but I bet his girlfriend/wife hasn't? or one of his very close relatives which just happens that they are professional developers.

Anyway, It's all speculation and should all be taken with a grain of salt.

 

You know I have.
But I'm hoping that Kier's alleged forum software would be something that I could convince the rest of my vB-user-clients to leave IB with. Some of them don't want to switch over to IPB. Don't ask me why though...

Correct.

 

Great news about Kier! By the way... no compete contracts hold little value in court, I wouldn't be surprised to see official news about his new venture before this "contract" expires.

 

By the way, here's a link to the complete article in English:
http://www.paulvoth.net/en/2010/01/wer-wartet-wird-belohnt/

 

This is what I'm mostly curious about. With Scott moving to San Francisco, and Darren, Freddie, Jerry and James still employed by vBS, I wonder who else could possibly be on the "project" aside from Kier and possibly Mike?

It'd be -really- interesting if he managed to pull John out of retirement.

We can assume all we want, but the subtle hints from Kier himself obviously point to -something- in the works. Whether or not it's Forum Software or something else is besides the point.

I'm excited at the possibility.

 

yep, me too.....

ummmmmmm, not really...

 

I even read somewhere that the UK may not uphold it either, since the contract is with a USA company (IB). I believe Kier is still UK-based (not sure)...

 

As an HR professional by day. I can tell you con-competes are hard to enforce. There are just so many loopholes the cost of enforcing it can become greater than the loss of not enforcing it.

However, where things have become sticky is civil suits over use of proprietary information. Companies have been much more successful in going after former employees this way and no contract written or expressed is needed.

 

I think some of you are dismissing the value of a non-compete clause, just a little too easily.

I hate to tell you, but they are enforcable, just less so in some cases and in some places.

Some of the factors to be considered are....

1-Jurisdiction (what country)
2-Nature & Scope of non-compete (what it restricts)
3-Length of restriction(how long it restricts)
4-Whether the employee quit or was laid off
5-Whether the employee is just working for the competitor or whether they have a direct financial interest as an owner or investor.

As I said in my earlier post, where it is very tricky to enforce a non-compete clause, or almost impossible, is when an employee is terminated by a company and then goes off and obtains employment with another company.

It is also hard to enforce a non-compete in general, with respect to employees going and obtaining work with a competitor just as an employee.

Where a non-compete is generally more enforcable, would be in a case, where for example, a former employee leaves and starts a competing business. Or in the case where that employee takes a financial interest in a competing company or starts a competing company. Especially in a case where they do so, soon after leaving, or if they were to use confidential information from their former company to assist them.

The other parts of a non-compete that are more enforcable, relate to things like intellectual property. As an example, let's say that employee is in sales and leaves with customer information and then begins contacting customers using something like a customer list. Or if the former employee had in their posession something like confidential pricing information and then used that to undercut their former company and lift business. In some of those situations, a court might look much more favourably on a non-compete agreement.

Most of these agreements are also covered by confidentiality agreements, which typically have a clause that doesn't allow you to even disclose the fact that you have a confidentiality agreement.

Whatever the case, as time elapses, non-compete clauses typically become of less and less real value, as the process of time itself diminishes the real value of suing to enforce the agreement. A large company could however, launch a lawsuit on a small upstart micro-company, perhaps merely for the purpose of creating a nuisance and for creating financial hardship on the smaller upstart.

I guess the bottom line I'm trying to point out, is that it's not as simple as "a non-compete is not enforcable" as some are suggesting. Especially in this case, where we would assume the former employee would be starting a competing company.

 

I reckon all the ex vBulletin developers should work together and create a new forum software. (sorry if this was said, Skinned the first page)

 

Gordie, good points. I'm sure the only people who can really say for sure are Kier and his father's son.

 

so exciting....

 

:chuckle:

 

As nice as it would be to see John active in a project, I really don't think that would happen. If anything he might pass some advice on to Kier. I could see Ashley Busby helping out from a business stand point Other then Mike and Ashley I really don't know who could be in on it IF anything is planned at all.

 

I meant the part about John more as a joke, but it'd still be fairly interesting if it happened.

And I didn't think about Ashley.

 

Yeah, pretty much. The reality is that we're all just speculating out loud.

I would think after a year or so expires, Kier's probably good to go. The more time that transpires the less a court is probably going care.

I would imagine if Kier did release something and it was well on it's way to being sucessful and hurting vBulletin in the process, that he could make himself a target for a nuisance suit from IB. They could try to claim infringement on their code or something similar just to cripple him. And even though the suit could be somewhat frivilous, big companies have deep pockets and small individuals do not. And certainly not deep enough to fight the thing to it's conclusion, even if it results in a win. I sure hope I'm wrong, but I've been in business a pretty long time and I've seen this kinda stuff happen more than a few times.

In the end, I hope he does release something, because I'm sure it will be really good and I'm sure in the long term, it will become the market leader. I know I would be one of the first in line to support it.

 

behind me...