Freeing my code... need some guidance

[Simon]

Ben Tilly wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 9:02 AM, David Woolley
> <forums at david-woolley.me.uk> wrote:
>> Simon wrote:
>>> I currently have all rights, I have never shared this code.  The only
>> That would be unusual for someone employed as a programmer in the UK and
>> most parts of the USA.
> 
> Simon has said that he is employed as a salesman, not a programmer.
> Depending on details (eg how closely the code relates to what his
> employer does) and his jurisdiction, this fact *might* give him
> copyright over code developed on his own, even when a programmer in
> the same position would not have copyright.

Correct, this is my thinking.  I will have to verify this but, my work has 
strictly no relationship with my project...  not even from far away.

> An example of this in reverse is that if I am a programmer in New York
> State and I write a novel at home, I will own copyright to that.  But
> if I write a program, even if it has nothing to do with what my
> employer does, that would belong to my employer.

This was the case when I was a programmer a few years ago.  Worse than this is I 
was employed as a "Programmer", but my job only involved web-development. 
However, because of my job title, a piece of software (like a game for example) 
made at home would have fallen in the same category as a website made at home.

> (This is part of the reason that I now choose to live in California
> where what I do in my own time belongs to me and can't be signed away.
>  I firmly believe that this fact is a key factor in the success of
> Silicon Valley.)

Very neat!  So you mean that a programmer in California can program on his own 
and keep all rights for his personal work?  If that's the case, I wouldn't be 
surprised there is a lot of contributors to GPL code in that region!

> Cheers,
> Ben