PROGRAMMERS RIGHTS

[perlnewbie]

as a student of computer science and a budding programmer, i wanted to see others view on this.....

what rights do programmers have regarding there code and intellectual property aggreements?
by this i mean, in lieu of signing with a company, what happens to your code if you should leave the company? and

how do these aggreements affect any future software you create after you've left the company?

can the company claim rights on software you create when the scope of your employment is over? i am new the idea of copyrighting code ........any feedback is appreciated.
thanks!

 

[MasterRacker]

Anything you develop on company time or using the company's resources or using any other code that is the company's intellectual property is the company's property. Anything you develop on your own time, at home, but choose to include into one of the company's products could also become the company's property - this one is gray and you would need to talk to a lawyer about the specific situation.

In a similar situation in the engineering world: when someone "invents" something patentable, generally the inventor gets their name on the patent but the company "owns" the patent and the rights to develop products using it.

When you change employers, you may also find yourself subject to non-compete agreements. This would not mean you couldn't get another job as a programmer, but you might not be able to get a job at a direct competitor working on similar products for a period of years since your inside knowledge could hurt the company.

Basically, they are paying you to do certain work and they own the rights to that work.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[jamesac]

In different jurisdictions various rules apply. In general:

- if you are an employee, then the copyright of anything created while you are being paid (eg Mon-Fri 9am-5pm), or which was done as part of your job, is owned by your employer; you, personally, own the copyright to anything created while you are not paid nor was necessary for your job. However, depending on your employment contract, you might be assigning copyright to your employer to anything created during the period of employment (1 Jan 2000-17 Dec 2002), or if you used some of your employer's property (eg a pencil).

- if you are a contractor, you own the copyright to your creations. (If you work through a private company/corporation, then you might be an employee of that company, and hence that company will own the copyright. Important if you ever disolve the company - there's no-one able to claim the copyright.) However, usually the contact will have something to say on the subject - usually assigning copyright for work done under the contract to the ultimate payer.

Note that created means physical creation. If you just thought about it at work, it's not physical creation and no copyright exists. Jot down some notes, and it's now created and copyright exists.

Consult a lawyer, I'm not, this posting has no legal merit, you're an idiot if you rely on it.