Re: What are a programmer's rights to what he writes?

From Al Macintyre

> most of you have probably never needed to assert yourselves on this issue. 

The times I have found it neccessary to assert myself on this issue are:

3. I had written code at my employer, which used source that came from a 3rd 
party package, that we had a contractual right to copy & modify.   Several 
years later, my boss then said that we did not need that 3rd party package 
any more so we could cancel the contract with them, and he did not see that 
the fact I was using some of their code in other software at our company to 
be a copy right problem, under derivative law.

I have had several "debates" with bosses & co-workers over issues of 
interpretation of both contract law and criminal law as it pertains to 
computer use, in which the final ruling has invariably been that I am not the 
final arbiter of these matters at my employer.  But I continue to have 
concerns about fiduciary responsibilities.

2. Consultants working at my employer were modifying software that we had 
from a 3rd party & they were leaving off the copyright notices of the 3rd 
party which I felt was a violation of the rules for derivative code.  

My rule of thumb has been that if I write a program in which 100% of the code 
was entered by me, then it does not need any derivative copyright statement, 
but if I copied code that originated with something that was copyrighted, or 
if I am accessing files that are part of the package, then I need to include 
a statement of software ownership.

I have written programs in which a dozen different vendors were named in the 
source code as having copy rights to the code involved, because I took chunks 
of code out of their packages.  None of this ever identifies which of the 
code belongs to which vendor.

1. I was an officer in a micro computer club at a time in which piracy was 
rampant, in which many members wanted a club hosted shareware library & I 
held out for affadavidts from software contributers that either they had 
written 100% of this themselves, or that they had a legal right to distribute 
the software with zero financial obligations to the originators of the 
software.

There are several issues or threads to consider.

There's what is right & wrong, legal, ethical, which is periodically 
re-defined by new laws & new technologies, what is generally accepted 
behavior & how much of what goes on the internet is just because the users 
are ignorant of copyright, and what are the odds that if we slip up & do some 
no no that our former employer will check up on us, & actually try to do 
something about it, if the software is only being used in-house at a company 
that is not in competition with our former employer?  Likewise, if we cancel 
some contract, the vendor is probably more interested in getting our business 
again on some future software package than trying to conduct some audit of 
the software we are still using to see if we are in violation of copy right.

How do I learn my programming skills? ... there are techniques in text books 
& IBM School, which presumably we are supposed to use, but is not that a 
violation of the copyright as stated in the front of the programming text 
book?  Ditto copyright statements in magazines for programmers.  So there is 
the issue of differentiating the learning of coding techniques that we are 
expected to copy, and learning stuff that is confidential.

Most employers have licenses to modify some packaged code, in which the 
employees are covered by the contract ... we share the contents of this 
information & know-how with other folks who work for companies that have 
signed the same non-disclosure contract.  But I got hired because of my 
experience with MAPICS & other ERP.  We put on our resumes what our 
experience is in.

So we see techniques used in the packaged software that we modify, and 
techniques used by former employees, and we do not know what is standard to 
an industry, that is legitimate for us to use anywhere, and what is really 
confidential to this package.

Many companies do not want former employees even working for their 
competition, and require some kind of signed contracts to enforce such a 
desire.

>  From:    nathanma@haaga.com (Nathan M. Andelin)
>  
>  Is it illegal for a programmer to use source code he was employed to write?
> 
>  Is it unethical?  For example, should a programmer be able show some of his
>  past source code to a prospective future employer?
>  
>  One of the people on this list express his opinion last week that it was
>  both illegal and unethical.
>  
>  My question is what rights do programmers have to their works?  And, in 
your
>  opinion, what rights should a programmer have?
>  
>  Actually, I was forced to defend myself not long ago in Federal court in a
>  copyright case.  So, I gained some strong feelings about this issue - as
>  well as a clearer understanding of the law.
>  
>  I feel this question is appropriate for the people on this list because it
>  affects so many of us.  In asking, however, I have two fears.  The first is
>  apathy - most of you have probably never needed to assert yourselves on 
this
>  issue.  Second, some of you may feel uncomfortable sharing your opinion in 
a
>  public forum.  For example, an employer who is highly dependent on a 
skilled
>  programmer may not want to risk offending his employee by asserting that 
the
>  employee should have no rights to his work.  On the other hand, an employee
>  may not want to offend an employer, or may feel uncomfortable saying he
>  ought to have rights even though the law does not support that view.
>  
>  If this is the case, I would still appreciate a private and confidential
>  e-mail message to me.   nathanma@haaga.com
>  
>  Thanks.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
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