rcj@moss.ATT.COM (04/13/87)
In article <4477@utah-cs.UUCP> cetron@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Edward J Cetron) writes: > Most companies make it very clear what is yours and what is theirs. >And I seem to remember the big court case about some guy from sears and >wrenches which ruled that what you do on your own time is yours. Most companies do indeed, including AT&T -- ANYTHING you do is theirs while you work for them. I posted a PD version of dup2() a couple of years ago (there had already been two almost-identical PD versions posted). I got a call from an AT&T corporate lawyer who subsequently sent me copies of the copyright-type agreement I had signed, the pertinent company instructions on the matter, and a personal letter telling me that it was decidedly NOT up to me to decide that this piece of software was, as I had put it, "the definition of the word 'trivial'" in nature. > The only place that I know of where this IS a problem is with graduate >student employees in universitys. Now you know of another 'lil ole place -- AT&T. The MAD Programmer -- 201-386-4295 (Cornet 232) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd allegra ]!moss!rcj ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua watmath ]!clyde!rcj
jbs@mit-eddie.UUCP (04/14/87)
In article <8411@clyde.ATT.COM> rcj@moss.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) writes: >Most companies do indeed, including AT&T -- ANYTHING you do is theirs >while you work for them. Glad you think so; that's what they want. >I posted a PD version of dup2() a couple of years ago [...]. I got a >call from an AT&T corporate lawyer who subsequently sent me copies of >the [...] agreement I had signed You mean AT&T is _spying_ on its empoyees? Violating their privacy by monitoring this public forum (what would the NSA think?) :-) >Now you know of another 'lil ole place -- AT&T. Now I know of another place that likes to create it's own legal system, by intimidating its employees. (Is this the kind of place you would want to work, John? :-)) Seriously, what you do on your own time is yours, even if you use company equipment to do it, _if_ it is not a part of your job. For example, if you work for AT&T as a computer systems developer or researcher, and you invent true AI in the middle of the night, while you are home in bed, it's theirs. But if you're a secretary and you do the same thing, it belongs to you, legally invalid employment agreements notwithstanding. Now, if you're AT&T, and this happens, you have 3 options: 1) Help the secretary obtain legal protection for his/her invention (ie. patent, or whatever). Help him/her publicize and market it, so s/he can make lots of money, and everyone gets to use this great new thing (including you) 2) Ignore it, so no one benefits. 3) Intimidate him/her with calls from the AT&T legal assault team, pages of legalese, threats, warnings, etc. When s/he realizes that it "must" belong to AT&T "because he/she works there", get some big shot from Bell Labs to look at it, patent it, and assign the patent to AT&T, and you make LOTS of money. Which would you do? Jeff Siegal