News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google claims copyright on employee side projects by vageli on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @11:39AM (#21826607)
When does company time start and end for a salaried employee? If I'm working on a side project and get paged to look at something for work, does work time start when I look at the alert? Am I on work time if I answer a work email on a work device with my personal laptop open doing side work at 3 am?
Re:Google claims copyright on employee side projects by anaphor on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @01:48PM (#21827917)
I mean, if it was done on non-Google hardware, off Google property, and using resources that you paid for / own, then I can't see any problems with that. They can still argue that it competes with their core business, but they would have to provide some justification if they wanted to fire you for cause or have the IP assigned to them. I guess they can just terminate you for no reason (I think?), but that's the risk you take.
Re:Google claims copyright on employee side projects by shadowgovt on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @04:48PM (#21829820)
The possible need to prove that an employee's work was done on company time (which is a vaguely-defined notion for US salary employees in the era of remote work) or with company hardware is a huge hassle for the employer, which can probably shed light on why they'd use blanket assume-ownership-of-copyright agreements, so long as employees are willing to sign such agreements.