Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Don't ask to ask, just ask
 
PerlMonks  

comment on

( [id://3333]=superdoc: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??
This came up from an incidental issue about a month ago. I have been told that if I wish to continue being employed, I cannot post code.

This is extremely bad form on the part of your employer. Companies that implement this type of policy are shooting themselves in the foot, unfortunately they can do a lot of damage to others, including free software organizations, in the process.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems this all pretty much comes down to the agreement that was signed. A brief reference on the issue is available here. From the part that describes what a 'Work for hire' is:

Section 101 of the U.S. copyright law defines "work for hire" as follows:

  1. a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or,
  2. a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as: a contribution to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, a sound recording, or an atlas; or,
  3. if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.

Assuming this is still relevant, Number 3 is the problem. I haven't heard of anything that specifically says employers own all the rights to all work done by professional employees by default but if the contract signed says so, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot you can do.

Excellent post though. This is an issue that has important consequences for free software and should be receiving far more attention than it has been.

Update: Here's another good article on the subject.


In reply to Re: Professional Employees and Works for Hire by cjf
in thread Professional Employees and Works for Hire by tilly

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post; it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
    <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>
  • Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
  • Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.
Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others about the Monastery: (7)
As of 2024-03-19 11:48 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found