I originally wrote the following on September 27, 2010.

106 Miles is a group of the best entrepreneurial engineers in Silicon Valley.

Our mission is to Empower exceptional startup engineers through conversations with other outstanding entrepreneurs and engineers.

So it was with great sadness and disappointment that we learned last week about the mistreatment of their best engineers by Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Pixar, and Intuit (aka "The Sad Six").

Those companies remind us of a ravenously amoral murder of crows.

Last week the Sad Six settled with the United States Department of Justice, admitting now that they secretly colluded to not poach the best engineers from each other.

It pays to repeat that:

Some of Silicon Valley's best companies knowingly exploited their very best engineers by blocking other (better) opportunities for them.

This employment collusion was in the best interest of the Sad Six companies but not in the best interest of their finest engineering talent.

Google confirmed that it only applied this collusion to cold calling but in our opinion it's the principle that matters; not only did Google knowingly take advantage of its best engineers, but now it has the unmitigated gall to spin "don't be evil" about the subject.

If we were an engineer at Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Pixar, or Intuit, we would think twice about staying at that company now that this information is public. To paraphrase Oprah, we get the behavior we allow.

Engineers come to Silicon Valley from all over the world to work for the best companies in the world. Entrepreneurial engineers come here from all over the world to work for startups. None of those six companies is a startup. So if you're at one of those companies and you're looking for an reason to leave and join a startup, you have one.

Leave. Join Facebook. Join Twitter. Join a startup. Or start a company of your own.

If you want to learn from others who have done so or are doing so, please come to a 106 Miles and talk with other talented technical people working at Facebook, Twitter, and other startups.

Engineers, stand up to companies that exploit technical people, and tell them that they are not the boss of you. Engineers have the power because we build everything.

Sing with us: We see the Sad Six driving 'round Silicon Valley with the engineers we love, and we're like...

Today the Mercury News reports:

Finding strong evidence that Silicon Valley powerhouses such as Apple, Google, and Intel had an "anti-poaching" pact not to raid rival work forces, a federal judge on Friday sent the strongest signals yet those companies face a tough challenge defending allegations raised by tens of thousands of employees.

In a 53-page ruling filed shortly after midnight, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose found the employees have turned up damaging evidence that top executives from those valley stalwarts, including late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, had side deals with each other to take a hands-off approach to stealing each others' most coveted workers, particularly in the engineering ranks.

I remember the TechCrunch article a year ago.

This isn't over.