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

Nathan,

You say:

b.  A programmer, while working within the scope of his employment comes up
with a great idea that would greatly benefit his employer.  In fact, the
idea is perfectly applicable to his current assignment.  One problem - the
idea also has terrific commercial potential.  The programmer realizes that
if develops the idea on his own time and with his own resources he will own
it.  So, the programmer decides to develop an inferior solution for his
employer while he develops the superior solution on his own.  A potential
for conflict?

The problem here is that while you are employed, without prior written
agreement, the employer owns EVERYTHING you program.  So even in this
situation, you loose.  Now if you exclusively wrote AS/400 software at work,
and wrote something for the Linux world, you would be "Morally" (but not
legally) correct.  But, in the scenario you describe above, not are you
legally wrong, but also morally wrong.
About your only choice is to quit and have a go at it.  Risky, but high
potential.  And how most software companies are born.

Bob

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