Re: [DotGNU]Copyright waivers for developers?

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Rhys Weatherley wrote:
> 
> Bill White wrote:
> 
> > So if I only work on this separate from my employer's equipment,
> > facilities and time, you believe I am ok, and I can sign the
> > copyright waiver as myself.  I don't believe my employer has
> > jurisdiction over what I do when I am not working for them.
> 
> Read the employment agreement that you signed prior
> to joining the company that employs you.  Most employers
> have an agreement that goes something like this:
> 
>      Any work done by the employee, even if not on
>      company premises or during business hours,
>      is owned by the employer.
> 
> This is usually to stop an employee from using their
> knowledge to compete with the company in their spare
> time.  The real effect is that anything you come up with
> belongs to the company first and foremost.
> 
> You will normally be OK if your spare time activities do
> not overlap with your employer's activities.  e.g. if your
> employer makes word processors and you build Web
> services in your spare time, there normally won't be a
> problem.  If however you come up with a cool new
> word-wrapping algorithm in your spare time, then
> the employer owns it because there is an overlap.
> 
> Things get annoying when you come up with something in
> your spare time that doesn't overlap, but your employer
> would like to be doing it.  e.g. turning their word processor
> into a Web service.  At that point, you lose the rights to
> your own work because the employment agreement
> says that the employer owns it.
> 
> That's why an explicit letter from an employer is so
> important.  It modifies the employment agreement to
> ensure that you own anything you do that is unrelated
> to the employer's business, and that they cannot
> retroactively lay claim to your good ideas.
> 
> I've been majorly burned by employment agreements
> in the past.  That's why I now work for me.  Employment
> law was bought and paid for by big business.  Unfortunately,
> most voters don't understand the implications, because
> they don't work in Copyright-intensive industries like we do.
> The same issues don't arise in blue collar jobs, and in very
> few white collar ones also.
> 
> Anyone who works on DotGNU will need to keep this
> in mind.  The last thing we want is for some employer
> to front up and make demands of us because one of
> their employees contributed code in good faith.  Read
> your employment agreements very carefully.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rhys.


Hmm.. I didn't know about this myself...

I suspect that this is true all over the world.  This should be illegal,
but we all know that our glorious nations actually don't believe that
workers rights are human rights.  (Of course, this carries the
implication that workers are not human but rather, commodities - gee,
isn't capitalism great!)...

In all seriousness, they'd have to throw me in jail before I submitted
to an agreement that let someone do that to me...

        -Barry