Re: Developing Open Source Software

> Jeroen Wenting wrote:
>> I've had contracts that stated that all code written during the
>> term of the contract, whether in or outside of office hours,
>> belonged to the employer.
>> In practice that's just about impossible to enforce, and I don't
>> think it's ever stood up to legal scrutiny, but why take the risk?
>>
> I'm hammering one out now that originally stated that I was to
> exclusively work as a consultant for Company and that any other
> work done for any other third party belonged to the Company. Crazy.
>
Seen that as well. They went so far as to claim ownership of (and payment for...) any work done for anyone else up to a year AFTER leaving Company (essentially making it impossible to do any work whatsoever for a year after leaving them, as they didn't specify what work was covered, in theory they could demand payment for me working as a gardener after leaving them when I was employed their as a programmer/analyst).
Told them where to stuff that clause in no uncertain terms (though not in those words, obviously), brought in an expert in labour law (my sister's a midlevel HR manager, helps to have contacts), and the clause evaporated.
Such clauses are usually unenforceable (especially such ridiculously broad ones) but it's better to get them scrapped beforehand rather than have to fight them in court if someone decides to try to enforce them later.
Same company later tried to trick us into working under UK law when we were based in Amsterdam (and working under contracts made up under Dutch law), but only those parts of UK law that let them get away with things they'd never get away with here.
That led to a bit of a revolt.

Jeroen Wenting