Messages in this thread | | | From | brian@futurete ... | Date | Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:54:07 -0700 | Subject | Re: Contributing to the kernel while being employed |
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On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 10:13:27AM -0400, Anuradha Ratnaweera wrote: > > Slightly off-topic, but not completely ... > > Before working for a commercial organization, one usually has to sign a > contract which makes all the work done during the period of employment > (including innovations, "hobby" coding done during "after hours") > copyrighted by the employer. This introduces various problems when one > wishes to do open source development, especially as a hobby.
In California, USA:
There is no such thing as a free lunch, even as an employer.
A clause of that sort it technically unenforceable.
However, due to a broken tort system, there is an indirect way for an employer to enforce such a clause. However, this same strategy works whether you signed such an agreement or not and whether such a clause exists or not, thus this risk isn't directly related to the issue.
The bottom line being that having or not having such a clause in your contract won't change your liability (at least in California).
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