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Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by elastic_church on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @02:04PM (#13924615)
right thats something to consider

there's just so many ways around it and I'd LOVE to get some case law made just to get some unknowns clarified. Like when I contribute to an already existing open source project on company's time/resource/IP-appropriation-regime, do they get to rewrite the Apache license because one contributor had signed a contract? when running this open source software that happens to generate a transferable token with a liquid secondary market with no proof of ownership, is that the company's?

would love some broke startup to spend time on that case

Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by Silhouette on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @03:55PM (#13925613)
there's just so many ways around it

That depends very much on which jurisdiction you're in. You'd be crazy to assume, without taking proper legal advice, that retrospective assignment would not stand up as part of an explicit employment contract.

Like when I contribute to an already existing open source project on company's time/resource/IP-appropriation-regime

If you did that without your employer's permission, then probably both you personally and anyone redistributing the OSS project would be infringing the employer's copyright. If that upset your employer, you could expect to be fired and possibly sued, and anyone involved in redistributing the OSS project could expect a C&D from your former employer's lawyers pending removal of any infringing work you contributed.

Depending on the scale and sensitivity of whatever you contributed, a bad result could be that you are out of a job, bankrupt due to damages and legal costs, and known for being untrustworthy since any future employer who looks you up is going to find the lawsuit, while the OSS project is significantly inconvenienced and doesn't ultimately benefit from your contribution anyway.

Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by elastic_church on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @04:25PM (#13925902)
yes, those are possible outcomes and the cost benefit from every single one of my side projects is so much greater

and I do factor in the jurisdiction in my own personal assessments and everyone else should too

there are many circumstances where the consequences are completely opposite of what the contract says (or how their employer's actually operate, care about, or will ever find out about) and people's behavior will conform to those consequences

Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by dspillett on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @06:40AM (#13929841)
There is also another factor to consider: while all this is playing out, in public, you are someone being highlighted as having signed a contract disingenuously. It doesn't matter how bad the contract is, the fact that you signed it and reneged on it later could look bad to future employers (especially if they have links to the company in question through the old-boy network or similar!).
Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by pja on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @09:03AM (#13930538)
Unfortunately companies do this all the time: I have personally seen clauses in contracts put forward by employers whose exact wording had been rendered completely ineffective and unenforceable by UK employment case law.

If it’s bad faith to sign off on a contract which contains clauses you do not intend to honour (because they are unenforceable) surely it’s equally bad faith (if not more so, given the power relationship) to keep unenforceable clauses in contracts purely in the hope or expectation that they will frighten uninformed employees into conforming with them?

Re:GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects ... by elastic_church on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @01:22PM (#13932853)
> while all this is playing out, in public, you are someone being highlighted as having signed a contract disingenuously.

or that my foresight and source of legal counsel is better and people may find value in that?

or I better hope my side project takes off right!