4:40 a.m.
Hi,
I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work (even
the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by my company.
What do I have to do in case I have something to contribute and I
developed it in my free time at home.
VJ
4:44 a.m.
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, VJ wrote:
Hi,
I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work
(even the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by
my company. What do I have to do in case I have something to
contribute and I developed it in my free time at home.
are you sure about *all* of your work being owned by your company?
that seems like a rather unreasonable restriction, unless you
explicitly signed such an agreement when you were hired. that sounds
like the kind of thing that companies *like* to say even when it's
unenforceable.
in any case, if your company has no objections to you GPLing some
off-hours work you've done, then read:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
toward the bottom, where it states:
====
...
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James
Hacker.
signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
=====
rday
4:59 a.m.
Robert P. J. Day wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, VJ wrote:
are you sure about *all* of your work being owned by your company?
that seems like a rather unreasonable restriction, unless you
explicitly signed such an agreement when you were hired. that sounds
like the kind of thing that companies *like* to say even when it's
unenforceable.
in any case, if your company has no objections to you GPLing some
off-hours work you've done, then read:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
toward the bottom, where it states:
====
...
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James
Hacker.
signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
=====
rday
Thanks for the reply. I will read that and pass it on to my manager. My
agreement says 'All my work during my tenure is owned by my company',
but the thing I am talking about is NO work!!! It is hobby :)
VJ
5:11 a.m.
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, VJ wrote:
Thanks for the reply. I will read that and pass it on to my manager.
My agreement says 'All my work during my tenure is owned by my
company', but the thing I am talking about is NO work!!! It is hobby
:)
i doubt that would be a meaningful distinction. if you signed such a
contract, you might be screwed. but is that a verbatim statement from
your contract? it seems kinda vague. what's the definition of
"work"? what's the definition of "tenure"? does it encompass
only
regular working hours? etc, etc.
you mention that you're from india. can you get a look at contracts
that were signed by other employees, both foreign and native, and see
if they differ in the wording? it seems that this might be an illegal
contract and they're taking advantage of your work situation.
anyway, IANAL so i'm just thinking out loud.
rday
p.s. if you are, in fact, a foreign worker, even if you're legally in
the right, you might not want to press the issue since it might
jeopardize your work situation. just some friendly advice.
5:27 a.m.
On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 05:44 -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, VJ wrote:
> Hi,
> I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work
> (even the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by
> my company.
No, this is definitely wrong. I can't exclude it might be true in some
countries, but it definitely is not true in Germany.
In Germany, almost the opposite applies:
Any non-trivial, non-contracted creative piece of SW having been written
under your free will, is considered "creative art-work" and is owned by
you/copyrighted by you.
This ownership/copyright is non-assignable to anybody and protected by
Germany's constitution. I.e. you as the author of such a piece of
software can not give away your copyright - Once written, it will always
be owned by you. All you can do is to license it to others.
Contracted work is a different matter. In general, it is owned by the
contract giver.
This may sound complicated, but it actually isn't, when comparing it to
other domains:
* A carpenter who designs a table and sells a copy of this table to you
owns the copyright on the table you bought. You may use the table, but
you may not copy it.
* A carpenter to whom you bring the design drawing of a table you draw
yourself, to let him manufacture it, performs "contracted work under
your direction". Therefore he does not own the copyright, and may not
replicate the table, except with your permission.
Of cause their exists a gray zone.
The keywords are "free will", "non-trivial" and "creative".
If they
don't apply, according German law, such work is not copyright-able at
all.
Ralf
4:49 a.m.
>>>> "VJ" == VJ
<vj(a)vijaygill.homelinux.net> writes:
VJ> Hi, I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my
VJ> work (even the one that I develop at home, in my free time)
What legislation is that? It's a gross violation of human rights.
--
Colin Paul Adams
Preston Lancashire
5:01 a.m.
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:56:52 +0000, VJ <vj(a)vijaygill.homelinux.net> wrote:
Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>What legislation is that? It's a gross violation of human rights.
>
>
I dunno, I asked one of my managers and he told me there is one. I am
from India working in Ireland, so I don't know much about the
laws/legislations here.
I think you'd better start reading the relevant law/laws, because it's
in your best interest. I find it rather unlikely for such a law to
exist, but you can ask your manager what law he is referring to. I bet
he'll be unable to answer that. it's more likely though, like somebody
said earlier, that you signed an agreement when you were hired. many
companies do that, including my own :(
--
andrei
P.S.: OS/400 Rulez.
5:23 a.m.
Andrei Nestor wrote:
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:56:52 +0000, VJ
<vj(a)vijaygill.homelinux.net> wrote:
>Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>
>
>>What legislation is that? It's a gross violation of human rights.
>>
>>
>
>I dunno, I asked one of my managers and he told me there is one. I am
>from India working in Ireland, so I don't know much about the
>laws/legislations here.
>
I think you'd better start reading the relevant law/laws, because it's
in your best interest. I find it rather unlikely for such a law to
exist, but you can ask your manager what law he is referring to. I bet
he'll be unable to answer that. it's more likely though, like somebody
said earlier, that you signed an agreement when you were hired. many
companies do that, including my own :(
Normally these restrictions are placed on any "work" you do in relation
to your employment, i.e. if you work on a project (for your employer) in
your own time at home it still belongs to your employer. They wouldn't
normally apply to something you do in your own time using your own
resources that is not related to your employment - though I'm not a
lawyer...
FAS
5:36 a.m.
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:23:32 +0000, Francis Stevens
<francis.stevens(a)bristow.co.uk> wrote:
Andrei Nestor wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:56:52 +0000, VJ <vj(a)vijaygill.homelinux.net> wrote:
>
>>Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>>
>>
>>>What legislation is that? It's a gross violation of human rights.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>I dunno, I asked one of my managers and he told me there is one. I am
>>from India working in Ireland, so I don't know much about the
>>laws/legislations here.
>>
>
> I think you'd better start reading the relevant law/laws, because it's
> in your best interest. I find it rather unlikely for such a law to
> exist, but you can ask your manager what law he is referring to. I bet
> he'll be unable to answer that. it's more likely though, like somebody
> said earlier, that you signed an agreement when you were hired. many
> companies do that, including my own :(
>
>
Normally these restrictions are placed on any "work" you do in relation
to your employment, i.e. if you work on a project (for your employer) in
your own time at home it still belongs to your employer. They wouldn't
normally apply to something you do in your own time using your own
resources that is not related to your employment - though I'm not a
lawyer...
FAS
Although in the IT business unfortunately, any open-source project you
might engage in outside your normal working time could be considered
work-related. There are chances, however, that the agreement you
signed says something like "unless written management approval is
obtained". If this is the case, you're in luck, as your manager could
give you that approval, especially if you're planning to work on a
smaller or harder-to-relate- to-your-actual-line-of-business project.
hope that makes sense.
--
andrei
P.S.: OS/400 Rulez.
9:09 a.m.
On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 10:40, VJ wrote:
Hi,
I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work (even
the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by my company.
What do I have to do in case I have something to contribute and I
developed it in my free time at home.
VJ
I'm in the UK and I've never heard of such a law. I'm a contractor and
operate as a limited company. My contract specifically states I may work
for other people/companies.
Your manager may have been joking and you took him seriously, but check
your contract and listen to the advice others have given.
If there were such a law then I think many of us would know about it,
the effect would be huge.
Regards
Chris
9:15 a.m.
New subject: Contributing code to open-source in EU? - SOLVED
Chris Hewitt wrote:
On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 10:40, VJ wrote:
>Hi,
> I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work (even
>the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by my company.
>What do I have to do in case I have something to contribute and I
>developed it in my free time at home.
>VJ
I'm in the UK and I've never heard of such a law. I'm a contractor and
operate as a limited company. My contract specifically states I may work
for other people/companies.
Your manager may have been joking and you took him seriously, but check
your contract and listen to the advice others have given.
If there were such a law then I think many of us would know about it,
the effect would be huge.
Regards
Chris
Yippee!!!
I got a green signal to go ahead and there will be no problem!!! All I
have to do is sign a document with my company for every piece code that
I contribute to open-source community.
VJ
2:48 p.m.
New subject: Contributing code to open-source in EU? - SOLVED
On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 03:15:57PM +0000, VJ wrote:
Chris Hewitt wrote:
>On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 10:40, VJ wrote:
>
>> I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work (even
>>the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by my company.
>>What do I have to do in case I have something to contribute and I
>>developed it in my free time at home.
>>VJ
>
>
>I'm in the UK and I've never heard of such a law. I'm a contractor and
>operate as a limited company. My contract specifically states I may work
>for other people/companies.
>
>Your manager may have been joking and you took him seriously, but check
>your contract and listen to the advice others have given.
>
>If there were such a law then I think many of us would know about it,
>the effect would be huge.
>
>Regards
>
>Chris
>
Yippee!!!
I got a green signal to go ahead and there will be no problem!!! All I
have to do is sign a document with my company for every piece code that
I contribute to open-source community.
Most excellent.
Keep copies of the documents...
Do keep work and play separate as much as is possible.
If your work has you working on software for one thing
work in another area for OpenSource.
If you have two machines use one for play and the other for work. If
not two machines two accounts on the same machine. Same for your
time. Block out a schedule and keep to it.
In some cases this might look like a thin dotted line but it
has value at a lot of levels.
--
T o m M i t c h e l l
spam unwanted email.
SPAM, good eats, and a trademark of Hormel Foods.
5:09 a.m.
On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 10:40 +0000, VJ wrote:
I came to know that a legislation in EU says that all my work
(even
the one that I develop at home, in my free time) is owned by my company.
What do I have to do in case I have something to contribute and I
developed it in my free time at home.
What that directive did (known as the software copyright directive) was
set the default to: what you do while your work at your company is
theirs. What you do on your own personal free time is yours.
But that doesn't mean you can't have signed a contract that said _all_
that you do is theirs.... I'd take it to a lawyer, that might even be
illegal in your country.
The place I work at tried to do that, but the boss I was under at the
time of my acquisition told me not to sign it, so I'd just stay with the
default.
Rui
7083
days inactive
7087
days old
13 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
Andrei Nestor -
Chris Hewitt -
Colin Paul Adams -
Francis Stevens -
Ralf Corsepius -
Robert P. J. Day -
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra -
Tom Mitchell -
VJ