Australian Defense Scientists Plagiarizing Trade Secrets 60
An anonymous reader writes "At least five businesses have alleged senior officers in the Defence Science and Technology Organization have plagiarized intellectual property for their own research [free reg. required] and then passed it on to government business partners to develop a rival product. There are fears that IP plagiarizing could increase with the new Defence Trade Controls Act passed last year despite warnings from the universities it would drive research offshore. Once the trial period ends Australian high-tech researchers will face up to 10 years jail for sending an e-mail or making an overseas phone call without a government permit."
Re:All nations have laws legalising this behaviour (Score:5, Informative)
no they don't.
they didn't even in tougher times.
during ww1 and ww2 patents were paid both ways, even for shit like guns. IP law lobbyists trump even spies and generals. maxim made a shitload of money by licensing his gun to everyone's armies(and none of them copied it without paying license fees! even when they were going to have war with the nation the license fees would flow into!).
there's no exemptions for this stuff in the laws(of western nations), there's no rule that if an invention is for killing then patents don't count...
so shut up, ok? excusing blatant law breaking because "it's the government so it's ok!" is just pure shit. furthermore it's usually some company breaking it and selling the results to said government.. industrial espionage - with winners chosen by NSA - for kickbacks. it twists capitalism and makes some non-democratically chosen people very powerful so have fun with that then...
The Article (Score:4, Informative)
At least five businesses have alleged senior officers in the Defence Science and Technology Organisation have plagiarised their intellectual property for their own research and then passed it on to business partners to develop a rival product. They also allege there is a âoerogue element within the agencyâ and a âoeculture of circling the wagons when confronted with allegations against themâ.
And there are fears that IP plagiarising could increase with the Labor government last year implementing the Defence Trade Controls Act, which seeks to limit Australian businesses or individuals supplying technology to someone outside of Australia without first revealing their IP to the Australian government.
Brendan Jones, a Brisbane-based small businessman, spent 12 years of his life developing his revolutionary Kestrel Tactical Simulator, a PC-based professional military platform that simulates air, sea, land and space operations anywhere on the planet. The program simulated various transport modes, weaponry, radars and other sensors.
âoeIt realistically simulated injuries,â Jones explained to Crikey. âoeA shot soldier would start bleeding at a rate appropriate for the wound, and would have to get medical attention, say, via a medivac before they went into shock. I spent many years studying warfare intently to make it as accurate an experience as possible.â
Jones wanted to sell the software to the Defence Department but he was told he must go through DSTO. The government organisation looked at it but eventually recommended against funding the project because it was âoeimpossible to do on a PCâ. Jones battled on.
âoeI developed the software myself from my own savings, but when I finished, DSTO tricked ADF into believing the software wouldnâ(TM)t ship for several years. They then gave my IP to scientists I had been warned were plagiarising private sector research, broke a non-disclosure agreement, and three months later they commissioned their business partner to produce a rival version known as BattleModel,â Jones said.
Crikey understands BattleModel only began as an air simulator while Jonesâ(TM) KTS was multi-domain (land, sea, air and space) and in particular had excellent maritime simulation capability that was a major attraction to the Navy. An independent investigator appointed by the ADF to investigate the theft of IP told Jones: âoeYour software and the DSTO BattleModel software were remarkably similar. When I started this case I couldnâ(TM)t see any similarities between KTS and BattleModel. Now I canâ(TM)t see anything they donâ(TM)t have in common.â
Most people Crikey spoke to were unwilling to speak on the record due to a fear of upsetting existing business contracts with the ADF. A CEO of a major defence industry organisation told Crikey the organisation was aware of three recent cases where the DSTO had plagiarised a small business and run off with its ideas. âoeIâ(TM)m the first to say there are two sides to every story, but as more instances came up and I thought this is starting to happen a bit much,â the CEO said. âoeThe first person you think, well, he might be a bad businessman and didnâ(TM)t protect his IP, but then you start hearing of other people, and now Iâ(TM)ve had three cases across my desk, and Iâ(TM)m beginning to think that there is some sort of a systemic problem within the organisation.â
One of the businesspeople considered taking legal action but decided not to fight the department as he suffered a nervous breakdown during protracted negotiations. In a confidential email to the CEO, he said:
âoeJust letting you know that I am finished now. DMO cancelled all of my contracts; DSTO awarded my last contract to xxxxx who had been given access to all of my IP and processes by DSTO so thereâ(TM)s nothing left for me to do now. All the work I developed and pushed with xxxxx will
Australia is very, very corrupt (Score:5, Informative)
They are very disingenuous: The DSTO publicly solicits businesses to submit inventions to Defence under the "DSTO CTD Capability and Technology Demonstrator Program", and then screw them over behind closed doors.
Here the Defence Science Minister Warren Snowdon announced a DSTO Probity Board "to protect against conflict of interest" http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/news/6648/ [defence.gov.au], while here he sends a letter to an independent MP in which he falsely claims the whistleblower didn't want the thefts from other companies to be investigated(!): http://victimsofdsto.com/doc/2011-02-28%20Letter%20from%20Defence%20Science%20Minister%20with%20false%20information%20to%20Independent%20MP%20(NAMES%20BLACKED%20OUT).pdf [victimsofdsto.com]
Australia's Federal Police force, the AFP, are systemically corrupt. They ignore public service crime http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service-keeps-fraud-cases-private-20110923-1kpdr.html [smh.com.au] and terrorise whistleblowers: http://pastebin.com/tD8Vd6Vd [pastebin.com] http://victimsofdsto.com/psc/#kessing [victimsofdsto.com]
You can't use the civil courts: Under the Model Litigant Policy the Australian government has to keep legal costs to a minimum, must offer alternate dispute resolution, etc. But the government lawyers simply ignore it, run up huge legal bills and threaten to bankrupt you with a costs order if you dare step foot into court. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/gillard-government-lashed-for-ignoring-breaches-of-model-litigant-rules/story-e6frg97x-1226325228917 [theaustralian.com.au] Another department did actually bankrupt a guy. Not mentioned in the article, the DSTO also stole IP from some big defence companies (including an American one).
It costs about $2M to litigate the gov. I don't know of a single company who has seen litigation through: SMEs can't afford it, and the large companies said litigating their biggest customer would lose future contracts. The only law firms capable of taking on the government pro bono in Australia are all on retainer to them! Here's a very good book "Our Corrupt Legal System" by an investigative crime journalist; Page 157- describes all the dirty tricks lawyers play: http://netk.net.au/Whitton/OCLS.pdf [netk.net.au] . play.