Re: New Opcodes - %SETCELL

[Jim Langston <jlangston@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, I've read the copyright law on this very issue, about who owns the
copyright to what.  Understand, I am not a lawyer, and I was researching this 
for my
own use, but this is what I found the law to say.

1. If you write something, it belongs to you.
2. If you sign a written contract stating it is a "work for hire" then it 
belongs to
who you wrote it for as specified in the contract (that's right, no written
contract, it is still your copyright).
3. If you are a paid employee of someone and write it for the company, it 
belongs to
them.

Curiously enough, there seems to be a distinction of writing a program for a 
company
and getting paid for it (work for hire) and writing a program as an employee 
for a
company.

What this tells me is:
If I write a program at work, it belongs to the company, if I am their employee.
If I write a program at home, it belongs to me.
If I write a program at work, but am a consultant, it belongs to the company as 
long
as I give them a written contract stating it is a work for hire.  The law 
specifies
a written contract, not verbal.

Regards,

Jim Langston
Jon.Paris@halinfo.it wrote:

>  >> It was correctly noted that if you are an employee of a company and use
> company resources, anything you write
> belongs to the company.
>
> I'm not sure this is always true.  Surely it is part of your contract of
> employment.  When I was with IBM it was clearly spelled out - although you 
>could
> (and I did) get permission to own specific pieces that you developed.
>
> In my current job I have an agreement whereby I maintain joint copyright of
> anything I produce during working hours and own the copyright (with Hal having
> the rights to use) anything I develop in my own time.
>
> For many people I suspect it is simply a matter of asking.
>
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