Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!oster
From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Rigid Mac Programmer's Employee Agreement - Help!!
Message-ID: <29588@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 10 Jun 89 23:24:34 GMT
References: <8906101404.AA09781@jade.berkeley.edu> <4605@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
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Cross out the offending paragraph, initial the cross out, then sign it.
When they ask you to sign another copy do it again. One friend of mine
was employed at the same firm over 10 years using this system. The companies
I work for just quit trying to get me to sign my mind away.
 
Remember, software companies need you more than you need them.

I usually agree that I won't come out with a directly competing product of
my own for at least five years. I also allow my clients the right to use
the source code as they see fit.

But, my writing is my memory, my experience, my knowledge, my mind.
Since I own my own mind, I can finish products faster for this employer
than those who have signed their mind away to a previous employer.  This
is usually so important that I've had no trouble finding companies who'll
take me on my terms instead of someone else on the company's terms.

Remember, the lawyer who wrote that contract reserved the right to re-use
those paragraphs in other contracts. Why should he get a better deal than
you?

--- David Phillip Oster            -- "Unix Version 7 was an improvement not
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu -- only over its predeccessors, but also its
Uucp: {uwvax,decvax}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu -- successors."