<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Dr. David Alan Gilbert <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gilbertd@treblig.org">gilbertd@treblig.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">* Simon (<a href="mailto:turner25@gmail.com">turner25@gmail.com</a>) wrote:<br>
</div><div class="Ih2E3d">> I am very sorry, I have mislead you all.<br>
> Currently the code has been written entirely by me, at home without my<br>
> employer's knowledge. Until now, I intended to use it as a closed source<br>
> for private or commercial projects.<br>
><br>
> I would like to license the code _BEFORE_ it falls into the hands of my<br>
> employer.<br>
<br>
</div>Just because your employer didn't know you wrote it doesn't mean they can't<br>
claim it was related to them. You will have to check your contract with them<br>
to ensure that there is nothing in there about the way IP ownership is<br>
transferred to them; different employers have different ways of writing this<br>
and some of them may surprise you.</blockquote><div><br>When I was first working on GNU software, the way I handled this was to go to my employer of the day and ask them to sign a copyright disclaimer (which they did). When I moved from that company to being a grad student at Stanford, I found that I was also an employee of the University, because I was accepted with a stipend. Rather than forfeit my stipend and pay $$$$$ to attend grad school, I got the Dean to sign a copyright disclaimer. I was told by that Dean that this was the first such disclaimer they had ever signed (back in 1988). <br>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
It's very important that if you release it under a free license and<br>
a zillion other people pick it up that we don't find out 10 years<br>
later that someone else has a claim over it.</blockquote><div><br>Absolutely. Don't depend at all on what the laws of CA say. Get a copyright disclaimer that says that the company waives all rights, title, and interest to $SOFTWARE (where $SOFTWARE lists all the files you've created, however you created them). If you think there will be any trouble getting such a disclaimer, be prepared for all manner of legal problems down the road.<br>
<br>In my experience, a good company will not screw a good employee just because they think they can. Most companies will act honorably toward honorable employees because most managers at that company know their interests extend well beyond the here-and-now.<br>
<br>M <br></div></div><br>