Re: Work product (was RE: Midrange Knowledge test)

["Steve Landess" <sjl_123@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Steve Landess wrote:
>  >3)  Many if not most companies would *not* give you permission to take
> >copies of code that you wrote.

> Then Tom wrote:

> midrange-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Last time I seriously checked, admittedly some ten years ago, _most_
> companies didn't have the right to stop you. My current position is with
> a software firm and therefore what I write here for the products is
> definitely owned and controlled by the company.
>
> But that has not been true for any other company or organization I've
> worked for in the past 25+ years, that includes Packard Bell-NEC.
> Because what I wrote at PB-NEC was standard business function rather
> than marketable product, both sides had non-exclusive rights.
>
> I'm certainly interested in what current law might say.

Tom,
In the absence of a written contract specifying otherwise, you're right.  I
believe the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code does give both sides non-exclusive
rights.  My response was based on the fact that:

1)  More often than not, as a full-time employee, a condition of employment
was  that I was required to sign an agreement that essentially gave all
rights of ownership in any software I created to my employer.  Of course,
they can't take away what's in your head...it's simple enough to recreate a
program for a new employer from scratch using the ideas that gave birth to
the original, unless you also signed a non-compete agreement that precluded
such.

2) Likewise, while working as a consultant for the last 16 years, many times
I have signed agreements that gave all ownership rights to the client -
several of them being Fortune 200 companies.  It didn't matter to me - I was
getting paid by the hour, not for the intellectual property I was creating.

Steve