Re: Legality of selling software

A small but possibly important point......


Don't
assume that every one here is in your country of residence, which could have a
big influence on the legal position.



That being said I had the privilege of working for a large international
company (American) with a very strong emphasis on ethics. For example every
employee was required to attend a one day ethics course.

So based on my experience (as well as the course and manual); I would advise
anyone in a similar situation the following:-

You indicate that you did the work on their computer in their time, for me at
least it's clear. They own all of it 100%, unless your contract of employment
specifically detailed otherwise.


I
also was heavily involved in managing IT for a while, our company usage policy
clearly indicated "if you did it on our hardware (regardless of whose time
it was), it belonged to the company". There were many get out mechanisms
if you knew the legal loop holes... for example (but don't use my reference as
a defence if you get busted). "It is necessary for the user?s computer to
display a copyright notice and policy information at the commencement of each
session, which must include a confirmation mechanism indicating agreement with
the detailed conditions" (there is lots more to this). If you didn't know,
you can / should customise the Windows logon screen to include messages for
exactly this purpose!


Now
another company I worked for, the accountant tried to get smart and produced
his own (based on a legal document) intellectual property ownership agreement.
Whilst it was legally correct it was un-enforceable as the legal technical
language constituted a contract which could not be understood by the party
signing agreement (me, I had this checked out because it was my job for the
company). Again this would only apply in the specific country concerned (not America).








Finally
the company I worked for always stated, if you feel in any way uncomfortable -
you probably shouldn't be doing it..... ask H.R. for guidance.


If I were you and you feel it's worth it, clean room engineer it! On your own hardware in your own time.
I
hope this helps and of course, this is only my opinion based on my experience.
.

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