Re:Go Proposal: Accept GitHub PRs
by paulddraper on Thursday January 05, 2017 @10:02PM
(#13333574)
I don't understand. Whether you had the document or not, MegaCorp's lack of permission remains the same.
And Google's benefit from your MegaCorp contributions remains the same. MegaCorp legal recourses remain the same.
The situation is exactly the same.
No, because before Google was guilty of using MegaCorp IP, but now, you're guilty of telling them they could, so you are responsible now, not Google.
I'd like to hear that opinion from a lawyer. While it makes sense, the reality of the law doesn't always make sense.
Re:Go Proposal: Accept GitHub PRs
by paulddraper on Friday January 06, 2017 @02:16PM
(#13339287)
(1) Either way you're guilty.
(2) Either way Google competitor has damages on MegaCorp.
Say I work at MegaCorp (they make heavy use of Go in some backend systems), and didn't bother making sure I had permission to contribute on MegaCorp time (and thus, contribute MegaCorp IP). I make some PRs to Go which improve the Go garbage collector, which Google happily accepts. These changes help Google and they could help MegaCorp if some of their projects use Go. Hooray!
Somewhere down the line, someone at MegaCorp notices that I've been contributing to Go's garbage collector on MegaCorp time without permission. I may or may not be fired. However, Google has now benefited from what is legally MegaCorp IP without the permission of MegaCorp. If this is in the USA, there's a decent chance that MegaCorp tries to sue Google. That's a headache that I'm sure nobody at Google would want to deal with.
If there was a CLA which I had to sign, saying that I had permission to contribute MegaCorp IP, Google has a document clearly saying that I had permission to contribute MegaCorp IP. This is a far better situation for Google than if they had no such document.