Knicks Sue Raptors Over Confidential Information Taken By Former Employee

[RealGM Wiretap]

The New York Knicks have filed a lawsuit against the Toronto Raptors alleging that a former employee "illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position."

The suit alleges that the Raptors directed Ikechukwu Azotam to "misuse his access to the Knicks' subscription to Synergy Sports to create and then transfer to the Raptors Defendants over 3,000 files consisting of film information and data."

The Knicks contacted the Raptors and the NBA before filing the suit.

Via Ian Begley/SNY.tv

[beefman]

so this explains why the raptors season was so ****. they were using knicks data

[Euclid]

Uh, this just happened, I get it's a joke, but it happened after the season ended dude.

[dougthonus]

1: How dumb are the Raptors for doing this? Like obviously you're going to get caught.

2: How cheap are the Raptors for not having their own subscription?

3: Sort of interesting, if he took Knicks data and work (like a bunch of Knicks specific slices of stuff that was curated or revealed their scouting techniques or whatever) then this could be really huge.

If he just accessed the subscription and downloaded synergy stuff that was generically available then what are they going to get in this law suit? The cost of a synergy subscription in damages?

[Courtside]

1: How dumb are the Raptors for doing this? Like obviously you're going to get caught.

2: How cheap are the Raptors for not having their own subscription?

3: Sort of interesting, if he took Knicks data and work (like a bunch of Knicks specific slices of stuff that was curated or revealed their scouting techniques or whatever) then this could be really huge.

If he just accessed the subscription and downloaded synergy stuff that was generically available then what are they going to get in this law suit? The cost of a synergy subscription in damages?

1) You presume that the Raptors directed his actions. Just because Dolan says it, it doesn't mean that's how it transpired. Who the hell is willing to risk sanction for stealing the Knicks' inferior content?

2) They do have their own subscriptions, and were among the first to sign up. The Raptors Watson system is among the most advanced in pro sports and Synergy is one of the main inputs.

3) Now you're thinking, but also assuming a lot that the Knicks "slices" of things are worth being sanctioned over. If you knew anything about the Raptors, you'd know they think more highly of themselves, their scouting, or their gameplans, than they do of a perpetual failure like the Knicks.

Of course one guy can use his access to download everything he can, especially if he holds resentment against that team. They're going to need to prove that he was directed to do this, otherwise these lawsuits are frivolous. There was a public thing years ago when Bebe Noguiera shared the Raps scouting report and playbook with his new team - I think ATL or NYK - and nothing came of it.

Synergy info, if that's what he downloaded, is generic database type content. It's proprietary to Synergy, but once you've paid as an NBA feanchise, there's nothing secret. It's all just data points. Anyone with a team-level subscription could download all Knicks related data and process it in any way they saw fit, and knowing the Raptors have one of the most advanced data systems in the NBA, I don't see how they choose to do it this way, over their own legal access to the same data. He would have had to log into, or steal data from the Knicks' data servers for this to be some sort of violation or theft of inside info, but this doesn't seem to be what the Knicks are alleging.

[Jabroni Lames]

Lmao. So the Raptors can’t afford a subscription to Synergy? For a billion dollar corporation, this would be like using somebody’s Netflix password for a week.

[Cassius]

This sounds like the equivalent of having built a bunch of SQL queries or heavy macros in Excel and not wanting to go through the effort of reproducing it from scratch at the new job.

[elmdawgg69]

It appears the Knicks never deactivated this guy’s account, or they have one username and password that the entire department uses.

[MegaK]

Yo is why nothin beat eyes test bro! Take that for data bro!

[SkynMan]

1: How dumb are the Raptors for doing this? Like obviously you're going to get caught.

2: How cheap are the Raptors for not having their own subscription?

3: Sort of interesting, if he took Knicks data and work (like a bunch of Knicks specific slices of stuff that was curated or revealed their scouting techniques or whatever) then this could be really huge.

If he just accessed the subscription and downloaded synergy stuff that was generically available then what are they going to get in this law suit? The cost of a synergy subscription in damages?

1) You presume that the Raptors directed his actions. Just because Dolan says it, it doesn't mean that's how it transpired. Who the hell is willing to risk sanction for stealing the Knicks' inferior content?

2) They do have their own subscriptions, and were among the first to sign up. The Raptors Watson system is among the most advanced in pro sports and Synergy is one of the main inputs.

3) Now you're thinking, but also assuming a lot that the Knicks "slices" of things are worth being sanctioned over. If you knew anything about the Raptors, you'd know they think more highly of themselves, their scouting, or their gameplans, than they do of a perpetual failure like the Knicks.

Of course one guy can use his access to download everything he can, especially if he holds resentment against that team. They're going to need to prove that he was directed to do this, otherwise these lawsuits are frivolous. There was a public thing years ago when Bebe Noguiera shared the Raps scouting report and playbook with his new team - I think ATL or NYK - and nothing came of it.

Synergy info, if that's what he downloaded, is generic database type content. It's proprietary to Synergy, but once you've paid as an NBA feanchise, there's nothing secret. It's all just data points. Anyone with a team-level subscription could download all Knicks related data and process it in any way they saw fit, and knowing the Raptors have one of the most advanced data systems in the NBA, I don't see how they choose to do it this way, over their own legal access to the same data. He would have had to log into, or steal data from the Knicks' data servers for this to be some sort of violation or theft of inside info, but this doesn't seem to be what the Knicks are alleging.

Masai is highly regarded around the league, they just want him in a bigger American market. This is just an attempt to pry Masai away from the franchise. He has more value than OG and Siakam combined

[dougthonus]

1) You presume that the Raptors directed his actions. Just because Dolan says it, it doesn't mean that's how it transpired. Who the hell is willing to risk sanction for stealing the Knicks' inferior content?

Fair point. Maybe this has happened, because the Knicks said they contacted the Raptors about it, but they should have mitigating responses (most likely firing the employee and agreeing they have removed all data and haven't used it, if it is in fact proprietary).

2) They do have their own subscriptions, and were among the first to sign up. The Raptors Watson system is among the most advanced in pro sports and Synergy is one of the main inputs.

Good to know. I had thought all franchises had Synergy too.

3) Now you're thinking, but also assuming a lot that the Knicks "slices" of things are worth being sanctioned over. If you knew anything about the Raptors, you'd know they think more highly of themselves, their scouting, or their gameplans, than they do of a perpetual failure like the Knicks.

Doesn't really matter whether they think more highly of themselves, if they knowingly used proprietary data of another team that they should not have access to in any way, they're likely liable here. Especially if they were notified and did not take compensatory action (that can somewhat be inferred by the fact there is a law suit, but perhaps they did take reasonable compensatory action and the Knicks demanded non reasonable compensatory action). Again, I don't know HOW liable they would be, what are the damages the Knicks are going to show?

Of course one guy can use his access to download everything he can, especially if he holds resentment against that team. They're going to need to prove that he was directed to do this, otherwise these lawsuits are frivolous. There was a public thing years ago when Bebe Noguiera shared the Raps scouting report and playbook with his new team - I think ATL or NYK - and nothing came of it.

I don't think they'll have to prove the Raptors directed this depending on the data being taken. They will have to show the Raptors didn't comply with reasonable compensatory actions and see if the Raptors used this data knowing it was the Knicks data. As you said, if he's just downloading generic synergy data under his account that was still tied to the wrong franchise, that's really irrelevant. There's likely no reason for him to even do so though other than accident.

If the Raptors used the data though, that's a different story or if they refused to comply with removing the data or did some other type of stuff. Seems weird to file a law suit if there isn't some type of merit, but who knows, organizations with lawyers on retainer can do frivolous things legally because the cost is effectively zero.

Synergy info, if that's what he downloaded, is generic database type content. It's proprietary to Synergy, but once you've paid as an NBA feanchise, there's nothing secret. It's all just data points. Anyone with a team-level subscription could download all Knicks related data and process it in any way they saw fit, and knowing the Raptors have one of the most advanced data systems in the NBA, I don't see how they choose to do it this way, over their own legal access to the same data. He would have had to log into, or steal data from the Knicks' data servers for this to be some sort of violation or theft of inside info, but this doesn't seem to be what the Knicks are alleging.

I had a synergy subscription for years (though almost a decade ago when they were a start up), and while it is all just data points, having access to which datapoints the Knicks are looking at could give them considerable intellectual leverage. LIke they could know who the Knicks are targeting in the draft and make moves to get ahead or not get ahead of them or hold advantage in trade talks.

If they're using the Knicks data that they should not have had access to in a way of conducting intellectual espionage, I would say they're probably liable.

Granted, what that means in the grand scheme of things is probably ultimately irrelevant either way. Like even if the suit is settled for 20 million dollars (random number I made up for no reason) it is barely a blip for either franchise. It's difficult to imagine that any trade secrets stolen are worth enough to eclipse the number I made up given, as you noted, these are data points the Raptors largely have access to, and hiring an employee all together would generally give them knowledge of who they liked in the draft prior to the draft anyway.

[deeps6x]

The Knicks alleged that Azotam "illegally shared 3,358 video files" and that "the stolen files were accessed over 2,000 times by the Raptors Defendants," the lawsuit states.

Wow, how does someone even have time to watch 2000 video files in less than a week?

And since it is the Knicks, why would they even bother?

[Risk Addict]

Can data from synergy be “processed”? Is it just a raw database that teams can view and make clips from?

For example, could a knicks employee view 82 games and save clips of every time Jason Tatum drive left from the right side of the floor and put that on a reel and show defenders? That could be time consuming “proprietary” info that saves another franchise a ton of time, but still using the same reservoir of data they have available to them

[Courtside]

Can data from synergy be “processed”? Is it just a raw database that teams can view and make clips from?

For example, could a knicks employee view 82 games and save clips of every time Jason Tatum drive left from the right side of the floor and put that on a reel and show defenders? That could be time consuming “proprietary” info that saves another franchise a ton of time, but still using the same reservoir of data they have available to them

Your question is logically sound, and guesses in the right direction, but ignores the fact that any team could query Synergy for that exact same Tatum info and have it compiled and ready for viewing in literally minutes.

[mowcrowbar]

No wonder we sucked for the past few years…

[spikeslovechild]

Raptors should get the death penalty for this. Take all their picks.