Define: Code. Define: Home Define: Ownership Define: Exclusivity etc.
What if I wrote some code that I stole from someone else on Codeplex. If the company in question "owns" that code and I don't, does that mean they are the ones getting sued for copyright infringement? How about if I use open source code to fix problems at work without permission of said work and it breaches the conditions of the open source license but sadly wasn't caught until say version 9 of the software. Who's at fault? What if you write the software on Saturday post the maximum National Employment Standards and then the said company claims copyright for the said work whilst making profit from it. Can I the employee return fire and lodge a complaint against the NES? :D Just like a puppy, you may own it and its great when the going is good but when it piddles on the floor, you also own that to. Most employment agreements are a waste of both your time and the employers as they usually have very loose terminology around restraint of trade and copyright. It's not just a case of saying "We own your work" you have to spell it out more in specifics when it comes to our field for example. Typically a good contract will have clauses that have a cascading explosion effect to them - kind of like a role playing game where the spell triggers another spell and so on basically nerfing you to the point of non-existence. The courts generally find it hard to enforce trade/copyright disputes between both parties and often will look for the most obvious signs of breaching the trust of an employee or employer. In that if you took your code to jettison your career in a competitor of tomorrow well..you need to trick the court(s) into believing that the employers fears are a fabrication of paranoia. If you can't then its really down to who poses the most convincing argument - weak contractual agreements be damned. Bottom line see a lawyer and ask them "How do i break out of jail". If they are good they'll give you a list of ways this could potentially be argued free & clear. I'm yet to see a contract that looked anything like the the one i saw for when Microsoft hired the Adobe Photoshop Architect. From what i sneaked a peak at, this guy couldn't fart in a public place without Microsoft owning formally giving the rights to the said public's consumption of its methane composition :D --- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.riagenic.com On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Stephen Price <[email protected]>wrote: > I think they would have to explicitly state that in the work agreement > signed. I recall an employer I worked for a long time ago gave us new > agreements to sign which were particularly barbaric in this regard. Many > people refused to sign them without side projects getting an exception. > If they own you 24x7 then I'd expect a salary that reflects that. > On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 12:57 PM, Mark Hurd <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I don't recall were I got this from (perhaps it was once explicitly in >> an employment agreement and I've assumed it was general) but I was >> under the impression that ALL employee's coding (at work or home and I >> am referring to employees, not contractors) is owned by the employer >> (or at least has first rights to it). This is why open source >> development on work or /own/ time is an issue. >> >> -- >> Regards, >> Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.)(Hons.) >> > >
