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

["Nathan M. Andelin" <nathanma@xxxxxxxxx>]

<Jim Langston>
Okay, so why the difference in a corporation?  A corporation, by definition,
is it's own entity.  It can be thought of as a person, almost.  This entity
is
made up of the people who own it, and the people who work for it.  Since
I work for the corporation, the work I am doing is actually the entities,
since
I am just a part of it.  (If your right arm wrote a program the program
would
not belong to your right arm, but to you.  Your right arm is a part of you).
<end snip>

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your comments.  I need to respond to your analogy of a
corporation.  I think if you look into copyright law a little deeper you
will find that a person being part of a corporation (or any other type of
entity) has nothing to do with it.  Instead the law only considers the
existence of an employer-employee (master-servant) relationship.

An employer-employee relationship can exist between 2 individuals, for
example, no corporation or any other entity involved.

It is a good point, however, that a person being part of a collective does
shape attitudes about what is fair and appropriate, or not.

What about a situation where an independent contractor has only one customer
(a corporation) and has a contract that keeps him busy full time for 30
years with that customer.  This sounds a lot like employment.  But, if no
master-servant relationship exists, then the copyrights belong to the
contractor.


Nathan M. Andelin


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