Tuesday, September 4th 2018
TSMC Ex-Employee Charged with Smuggling 16nm and 10nm IP to HLMC
A former employee of TSMC, Taiwan's premier silicon fabrication foundry, has been charged with stealing trade-secrets to his next employer across the straits. Mentioned as "Chou" by DigiTimes, the employee has been charged with IP theft and smuggling trade-secrets of vital 10 nanometer and 16 nanometer silicon fabrication technologies over to his next job at Shanghai Huali Microelectronics (HLMC).
Before Chou could flee TSMC to HLMC, he was arrested by Taiwan Police, and indicted for breach of trust. With the matter now in the hands of the applicable District Prosecutors' Office, it has become subjudice and TSMC isn't issuing comments. Development of 10 nanometer (and newer) silicon fabrication nodes is proving exceedingly costly and painstaking for foundry companies, and it hurts their future just that much worse when someone does away with billions of dollars worth R&D.
Source:
DigiTimes
Before Chou could flee TSMC to HLMC, he was arrested by Taiwan Police, and indicted for breach of trust. With the matter now in the hands of the applicable District Prosecutors' Office, it has become subjudice and TSMC isn't issuing comments. Development of 10 nanometer (and newer) silicon fabrication nodes is proving exceedingly costly and painstaking for foundry companies, and it hurts their future just that much worse when someone does away with billions of dollars worth R&D.
32 Comments on TSMC Ex-Employee Charged with Smuggling 16nm and 10nm IP to HLMC
The root of the problem is China itself. The whole country needs to be blacklisted and shut out of the world economy. Like the Russians of the 90s, Communists in China simply don't understand the concept of ownership or property... yet we let them loose on a world established on that idea. They're almost like little kids.
Between IP theft, corporate espionage & state sponsored hacking it's pretty clear what China is all about. Worst of all they revel in it, I know badmouthing a whole nation for actions of the few (or too many in this case) is wrong but I'll make an exception for China :shadedshu: By east do you mean far east? Because there's nearly 2 billion people slightly to the west who don't think the same!
In fact, should the impossible happen (banning China), they will probably lash out. And the first target will be Taiwan, probably.
So, it would have to be something more subtle. Like import tariffs.
Anyway, not a surprise this happened. They don't go to war with Taiwan because there would be unwanted consequences...
I'll just leave a note to most of you - China has capital punishment for corruption. Believe it or not, it didn't drop corruption much at all. It just made the initial payments in terms of bribes just that much more expensive. But there are still countless amounts of people involved in corruption cases. In China. Where you get shot.
As for Intellectual property or outright corruption, to blame China and somehow Russia of the 90's is just....bad. First off, US doesn't believe in it either if it suits their interest, hence why they would all of a sudden acquire assets from Russia at prices as large as 1 kopek, yet the industry produces millions in dollars of products. Like how Khordokovsky ended up in jail and then exiled cause of trying to sell off Russian oil assets at kopeks price to major British oil companies. Only reason why he is loved by the west, is his hatred for getting caught in the corruption.
How do you think South Korea ended up so mighty with its big 4 companies? It wasn't honesty.
This is part of the game of life. The guy in Taiwan decided to take a risk, and he got caught. Do you know how many people out here in Canada get caught for corruption? lots. Doesn't change anything in the end. No matter the punishments you can provide, people will still do it.
I don't know why it'd be such an alarming opinion. I'm just talking about transitioning... to a capitalist mindset. That doesn't happen overnight. I think there's growing pains and the early period could be like the wild west or something (although I compared them earlier to "kids". It's kind of like that too.. where a toddler is out control picking up and messing with every object like it's theirs, if left to himself). If you want to take them seriously as actual business partners, that's your problem. I don't think even the Western business world does that. They only tolerate it because of cheap labor.. which is even worse on the West's part. I almost think there's an naivete and lack of seriousness to China's proclivity to theft.. while the West is consciously and habitually evil.
Plus as you said, complacency with low wages. Which in turn makes the businesses willing to ignore the issue.
Apple IP stolen years ago yet apple still outperforms. And still hides money, hundreds of billions of it. They still charge 1,300% markup for a product that cost them $50 to make in China.
We can rage all we want. But we created this very system used which others now are taking advantage of like we took advantage of prior.
Regarding I.T., just look at their phone industry. ALL phone vendors are only releasing iPhone clones, no original designs, no innovations, no anything.
Just copying either Apple or/and Samsung
/thumbs down China.