RE: GPL and software I have written
>
> The title to the software may be in question. The issue is what your
> contract with your employer says, and whether you used any of his
> resources (computer, network access etc) to develop the software.
> If your contract says so, he owns what ever you did at work. If you
> used his resources, he may have an interest.
>
I didn't write it for my employer; I wrote it for a grade, in a class, that
I paid for out of my own pocket, for which I will not be reimbursed by my
employer, taken at a state university, for purposes of advancing my own
education and perhaps career, which my employer did not request, and is only
vaguely aware of. It just so happens that I was employed by my employer at
the same time I wrote the software, and they are interested in it now. I
don't normally write C code for my employer, although I have in the past,
but certainly not to level required for an e-commerce package. What I have
written for my employer was less than 20 lines of extremely simple code and
took 10 minutes at work on the clock. However, the e-commerce package is
well in excess of 1500 lines of rather intricate code, took in the
neighborhood of 50 hours to write, and I did it on my own time at home. I
have looked through the employee manual, and I did not find anything that
states that anything I produce is theirs. I have worked for other companies
that required I sign a contract or waiver or something stating that
everything I did was theirs. This is not the case for my current employer.
I think it would be a crime to consider it my employers property.
Further, I have been advised that even though I wrote it at home on my own
time, that since I am a salaried employee, and I may run into problems. It
has been expressed that if they have any evidence to suggest that I might
have written any part of it while at work, that they may have a claim to it.
I don't recall working on it while at work, but that is not to say that I
didn't. I think that it would be extremely difficult to prove anyway.
Thanks for all the great info!
Brooks
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