Russell McMahon wrote:

> Open software is a pure capitalist idea. Capitalism asserts that I own my
> own resources. My productive capacity, my intelligence and more are mine to
> utilise as I see fit. I can define capital as I see fit. If Bill Gates sees

Well written Russel!

I just watned to comment on your line above and how it applies in
today's U.S. marketspace.

Every company I have worked for in the last decade has attempted to get
me to sign far-reaching Intellectual Property contracts with them, that
usually state something to the effect of "all works created by the
employee are the sole property of Company X."  I *never ever* sign these
without a re-negotiation of such a clause to include the following ideas:

- Works created outside of business hours that are not a core product of
Company X are NOT the property of Company X.
- Company X will be explicit in their requests for works to be produced.

Similar to that, anyway.  And I run whatever legal gobledeegook comes
out of the process by my friend who's an attorney.

Why?  Because I work on open-source projects outside of work.  If a
contract I hold with my employer states that they own it, it can cause
all sorts of headaches for BOTH parties to the contract.  (My company
then becomes responsible for distribution of anything I license under
the GPL, in a round-about way... not really but it's good to point out
such legal entanglements *could* happen if they really want to claim
full ownership of works I create.)

In addition, since I'm a system administrator by trade, I also ask the
company to review and approve that I will abide by this document:

http://sageweb.sage.org/resources/publications/code_of_ethics.html

ESPECIALLY the privacy section.  I have used this to deny (what I feel
to be) inappropriate requests to monitor the actions of individuals
using the systems I administer.  Of course, there is USUALLY company
policy that overrides this and I'll abide by those policies IF THEY ARE
PUBLISHED within the organization and the organization has notified
employees in advance that their actions are monitored.  No policy, no
monitoring.

Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com

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