From PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Fri Nov 15 02:27:16 2002 Received: from cherry.ease.lsoft.com [209.119.0.109] by dpmail10.doteasy.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-7.13) id AC04DD20020; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 02:27:16 -0800 Received: from PEAR.EASE.LSOFT.COM (209.119.0.19) by cherry.ease.lsoft.com (LSMTP for Digital Unix v1.1b) with SMTP id <1.007DB52F@cherry.ease.lsoft.com>; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 5:13:14 -0500 Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8d) with spool id 0452 for PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 05:12:59 -0500 Received: from MITVMA (NJE origin SMTP@MITVMA) by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LMail V1.2d/1.8d) with BSMTP id 5835; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 05:11:05 -0500 Received: from lmail.actcom.co.il [192.114.47.13] by mitvma.mit.edu (IBM VM SMTP Level 320) via TCP with ESMTP ; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 05:11:04 EST X-Comment: mitvma.mit.edu: Mail was sent by lmail.actcom.co.il Received: from plp.plp.home.org (p25.ta5.actcom.co.il [192.115.23.135]) by lmail.actcom.co.il (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id gAFAAjh27846 for ; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:10:52 +0200 Received: from plp.plp.home.org (plp.plp.home.org [192.168.0.1]) by plp.plp.home.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B5619A4915 for ; Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:08:20 +0200 (IST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Message-ID: Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:08:20 +0200 Reply-To: pic microcontroller discussion list Sender: pic microcontroller discussion list From: "Peter L. Peres" Subject: Re: [OT]: Standard contract for work? To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU In-Reply-To: <06be01c28c8c$6f2e2380$92926bd5@dominic> X-RCPT-TO: Status: R X-UIDL: 277600623 X-Evolution-Source: pop://mailinglist%40farcite.net@mail.farcite.net/ X-Evolution: 00000747-0000 On Fri, 15 Nov 2002, Dominic Stratten wrote: *>In the Uk any work done or any intellectual property dreamed up while on an *>Employers payroll belongs to the Employer. Oh s**t *>I.e. if you were absently mindedly drawing on a piece of paper while under *>the hours of employment and you suddenly became famous, the Employer would *>be well within their right to sell your drawings for their own profit. The *>same applies for programming. If you come up with a fantastic program while *>you are on the payroll, this belongs to the Employee, not yourself. The employer 'owns' the employee during work hours ONLY and can stipulate a non-competition kind of contract (i.e. you cannot work for a competitor in the same line of business while employed). If not, then the employer must pay full hourly wage rate for entire lifetime of employee during employment (including holidays, sleep hours, days off, pub hours etc etc). There are no available options to this reasoning in my view, excepting slavery of course, in which case the employer will also take over payments for everything else, like food, beer, transportation, medical, education, and housing, on the grounds that slaves cannot own anything, and have no money, and that these items are necessary to prevent the slaves from dying off. However, slavery is illegal. *>I dont know how this works for contractors but I would be inclined to *>believe that any intellectual property produced while being contracted would *>belong to the people who were employing the contract worker (unless *>otherwise stated in their contract). A contract specifically states the object it is drawn up for. A contractor only 'sells' what is being contracted (work hours, gizmos, whatever). Anything generated outside the contract object during this time is not owned or controlled by the other contractor. One or both sides may sign a NDA that covers IP and trade secrets involved in the object of the contract. Anything beyond that is legal suicide and/or commitment to slavery. If the contractor who does the work has any working braincells left then he will NOT generate ANY IP while on contract time. I hope that I do not need to explain why. ianal (and not in the uk), Peter -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.