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He was paid by the company to enter the data. The company owns only the data, not the mechanics (fingers, software, etc..).
by exim 14y ago
He was paid by the company to enter the data. The company owns only the data, not the mechanics (fingers, software, etc..).
- enjo 14y agoIn most countries (I'm not familiar with Dutch law), including the two I've worked with in the EU, the company would most definitely still own the code he wrote using company resources and on company time.
- stfu 14y agoHow is it best to avoid issues like these without having to get approval by a 3rd party? Is coding it at home and sending it to one's office email address enough for documentation that it was done in non-office time?
- snookca 14y agoIt's not even a matter of developing it on non-office hours using non-office equipment. Clauses are usually more broad to stop someone from creating a competing product, even when not on company time. Having built an app designed specifically for company systems, the company would likely have a legal claim against the invention, even if it were developed outside of office hours.
- stfu 14y agoI can see that problem for a situation where the outcome turns into a marketable product. But in these automatization cases it looks more to me like when somebody running a horse-drawn carriages business starts suing an employee for working in his free time on developing a car. The skills by the employee applied to solve the problem seem often unrelated/overqualified for the reason they were hired.
- ig1 14y agoProbably not unless his contract was written in such a way. If for example you wrote a personal email using a company computer while at work, you would still own all the rights to it. Your work contract will specifically say what rights you assign to your employer and the specific works it covers.
- tejaswiy 14y agoFascinating. I've never thought of this. What is the law in the US? If I e-mail a friend during work hours (or write this comment during lunch), does my company own the rights to this?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ig1 14y agoNo, assuming it's unrelated to your work you still own the rights to it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
- Symmetry 14y agoIANAL, but my understanding is: If you were hired to do some work, the result is "work for hire" and the copyright resides in the company. If you write software, emails, etc unrelated to your job you would ordinarily retain copyright to those. Cases like the one in the story are rather ambiguous. That's employment agreements almost always elaborate on the topic, saying that, for instance, code you write on company computers or on company time belongs to the company.
- grabeh 14y agohttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/11 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/11 Legislation in the UK creates a presumption that unless otherwise stated, first ownership of copyright works created in the course of employment will vest in the employer. So it is up to the written contract to rebut the presumption.