Re: Debian Roadmap
On Thu, Nov 20, 2003 at 11:54:22PM -0500, Noah L. Meyerhans wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2003 at 10:50:59PM -0600, John Hasler wrote:
> > > I was always under the impression my employer owned every idea I had...
> >
> > Only if you signed a contract to that effect (and in many jurisdictions not
> > then).
>
> And in Bdale's case, where his official title at HP is "Linux CTO" and
> they funded lots of Debian related activities for him while he was
> project leader (and they probably still do), I think he's probably on
> pretty solid ground. 8^)
>
> noah
Yeah, he's covered, but...
There's two comparisons to make: Open Source is like the Red Cross
or the United Way, or Open Source is like the IEEE, ICann, or W3C.
It is perfectly normal for a corporation to make contributions to
either. But in either case, I would think the employer could be sued
over the employee's contribution. And you'd need to report all actions
to the organizations as a separate line item to the FTC (you know,
proper transparency laws...)
In all cases I think the HP guy is covered, except for the "HP can be
sued" department. (I'm sure he and the lawyers have had a discussion.)
I'm sure there are precedents in the corporate+non-profit and
corporate+professional society that apply here. Has HP signed a
contract with the Debian non-profit? Is it transparent?
(I'm playing devil's advocate. This feels like an untested area of
law. And most speculations -- mine included -- sound like wishful
thinking.)
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