On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Mike Dupont < jamesmikedup...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 7:14 AM, Paul Norman <penor...@mac.com> wrote: > > If someone is unable to sign the CTs because they don't hold copyright > over > > their contributions then they'd be unable to legally contribute to OSM or > > any open mapping project regardless of the CTs. > > > > If someone is not working in a GIS field I can't see the courts > considering > > that mapping they did on their own time as being the property of their > > employer. If they worked in a GIS field then it could get complicated, > but > > none of this depends on the CTs. > > After working and living in Germany for many many years, and now > moving back to the US and have been forced to deal with this issue. > > it seems that US corporations overreach on this issue and in some > cases claim all copyright from employees. It is not just want you do > at work or what is related to work but also to what you do in your > free time. > > They can claim what they want. Even if you sign such a contract it is not valid. It's called employer and not slave driver. No court will enforce such a contract. As Paul mentioned this could be a problem if you work in the same kind of business and your contributions to osm could harm your employer or let them loos business. Also using company ressources and what you learn at your job can't be used for other projects or secondary jobs. similar with patents. If you invent anything related it's owned by the company but if you invent something entirely different in your free time then it's yours. On top of all this US law probably does not consider such contributions as protected by copyright at all. This has been discussed here over and over and Russ did repeat it just 1-2 weeks ago.
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