Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!artecon!tony From: tony@artecon.artecon.UUCP (Anthony D. Parkhurst) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Why you haven't heard from me recen Message-ID: <582@artecon.artecon.UUCP> Date: Mon, 31-Aug-87 13:44:11 EDT Article-I.D.: artecon.582 Posted: Mon Aug 31 13:44:11 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Sep-87 06:30:09 EDT References: <11543@decwrl.DEC.COM> <36400004@iuvax> <1352@gryphon.CTS.COM> <3857@well.UUCP> Organization: Artecon Inc., San Diego Lines: 69 Keywords: IEEE Summary: Not a legal issue In article <3857@well.UUCP>, tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney) writes: > I'm sorry to hear this. I'm a member of the IEEE Intellectual Property > Committee and employment agreements have been one of our big topics for > years (essentially our reason for existing at first). I don't have my older > files handy, but there are laws on the books in about a dozen states (and > I vaguely remember some Federal bill) that basically states that what you > do on your own time, with your own resources (ie. you don't use your > company's resources) are your own. One thing we heard of often has been > that many companies "bully" their employees into believing that the Company > is right and everything you do is theirs. The issue is not whether or not DEC owns what Dave (Hi Dave) does on his own time, but whether DEC feels that they may lose business over such activity. They would never try to take possession of his work, they would simply fire him. Yes, many companies do have you sign that piece of paper whose validity varies from state to state, however this falls under the rules of "Conflict of Interest", which is an entirely different matter. Most big computer corps have explicit rules on what is a conflict of interest, and what is not. Basically, the rules usually go something like this: A "Conflict" arises if: 1) You do work (outside the company) for a Vendor, Customer or Competitor of the company. 2) You do work (outside the company) which would normally be done by someone while working for the company. (In other words, if you do some work for somebody on a computer made by your company, and if you didn't do this work, they would be forced to hire the company to do this, then that is a conflict of interest. 3) (The catch-all, just incase they could not stretch the first two rules to cover just about anything.) Any outside activity that would result in a loss of revenue for the company is a conflict of interest. Now, the nice things that Dave does for the Amiga could almost be covered by rule number 1, except that he is not working directly for Commodore-Amiga, (but he is helping their business anyway). Rule number 2 does not apply because people would not go to DEC for programs for the Amiga. So, this leaves rule number 3. Apparently, either they think that Dave will single handedly ruin DEC, or they have had enough problems in the past, so they enforce the rule strictly accross the board. (I personally think their afraid of Dave :-) If Dave does not reach an understanding with his company, and he persists in providing wonderful Amiga software, then they will fire him. (I suppose they could try to claim ownership of his work and sue him to keep it from getting release, but if they fired me, I would do my best to ruin them :-) Dave will have no recourse against DEC for since "Conflict of interest" is a valid reason for firing someone. I hope Dave can come to an understanding with his employer, or go work at Amiga (hint, hint). -- Tony -- **************** Insert 'Standard' Disclaimer here: OOP ACK! ***************** * Tony Parkhurst -> hp-sdd!artecon!adp.UUCP (or) hp-sdd!artecon!adp@nosc.ARPA * * "One lawyer can steal more than a hundred men with guns." -- The Godfather * *******************************************************************************