Do I need to inform my employer before contributing to an Open Source Project?

[Joseph Hick]

there are two scenarios.

1. i am contributing to an open source project from my
home. the project is in no way related to my job. (at
work, i am involved with telecommunication software,
where as i am contributing to linux kernel). do I need
to inform my employer before working on this open
source project, so that all my contributions can
remain open source?

2. same as above, but this time my contribution to
open source and my work for employer is related.
(writing a proprietary shell and contributing to the
open source bash)

3. i am creating an open source project during my
spare time and planning to release it under GPL v3.
work and my projects are not related.

4. same as above but my project is closely related to
a product of my company that i work for.


 
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