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posted by cmn32480 on Friday October 30 2015, @07:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-won't-steal-your-ideas-honest dept.

"Read the terms and conditions" is good advice for anybody, but especially if you're participating in a hackathon. Otherwise, as participants in a Telstra hackathon are finding, you might be giving up more than you intend.

Lifx engineer Jack Chen – @chendo on Twitter – has noticed that the terms in the carrier's Internet of Things challenge seem to go beyond what people might expect if they're not paying attention.

The contract (PDF) that challenge participants have to sign contains a clause which seems to the non-lawyer to go far beyond what someone might develop for the hackathon itself.

The document seems to plant Telstra's flag in a participant's development work not just during the challenge, but for the following 18 months.

For any "New IP" (as the contract puts it) developed in that period, the participant agrees to:

  • Give Telstra a first right of refusal
  • Negotiate with Telstra about possible licensing
  • Not offer the IP to anyone else without Telstra having had the first refusal
  • If someone else is interested, give Telstra a chance to make a matching offer
  • Not give anyone else an exclusive on the IP until after Telstra's said "no".

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Hyperturtle on Friday October 30 2015, @04:41PM

    by Hyperturtle (2824) on Friday October 30 2015, @04:41PM (#256535)

    I have argued these things as well.

    Often, the business will not budge, decry me for being an obstacle, say it is not feasible to make changes, say everyone else jumped off the bridge so why don't I sign it, etc.

    I refuse to agree to such things, and if they don't accomodate me then yeah sorry I guess I can't be a part. I am sure that by being helpful I could end up being sued by multiple companies that want to lay claim to my inventions because I did freelance work--if the agreement I signed had a year or 18 month or whatever.

    One place had one that was for 5 years after my termination of employment! WHAT? They had to gall to ask me what would I invent or create in the five years that has be concerned that they would become the owner of it!

    Just... don't agree. Maybe you won't be cool to them anymore, but at least you'll show you're not a kid to them. If they really want you, they'll get a real contract. Places seem to have that available to them when it comes down to it and they really want your services.

    For a contest? No, they are looking to shoot at low hanging fruit stored in a barrel. Creative types that check the legal details won't be missed.

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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday October 31 2015, @03:26AM

    by anubi (2828) on Saturday October 31 2015, @03:26AM (#256783) Journal

    I freelance too, Hyperturtle, and I had one recently do the same to me in regards to trying to lay claim to anything I did after termination.

    I responded, in writing, that I agreed in consideration of their request, that they would pay my hourly rate for forty hour weeks for five years in addition to all fees to retrain me, paid weekly. I would then train for another line of work. Failure to remit in a timely manner transferred all rights to the thing I was to build for them back to me.

    There. In writing. In a single piece of paper. Prepared for their signature.

    You already know what happened.

    I knew it was hopeless from the start to consider building anything for them. I would have been better off working as a greeter for WalMart. But at least I wanted to make them the "not a team player" who "fails to move forward" with the project by not "getting with the program". I know they will find someone else to do it. Probably for $10/hour. It was funded by investors getting money from the government. They knew as well as I do that it does not have to work. They just have to go through the motions. The government has no problem paying for things... when they run out of money, they can just "raise the debt ceiling". Its not like the buyer actually has to work or give something else up to get the money.

    I have kept copies of some of the more egregious contracts and show them to young'ins interested in techie stuff, warning them to get into this kind of stuff only if their heart is in it, and this is what they will do even if they do not get paid for it. Its an art, like music, painting, or sculpture. Unless you are also a marketing and leadership type not afraid to use machiavellian techniques - if you are good at those - and know how to do business like a business, you will make it. They would not be like me, rather they would be like the ones that offered to hire me, provided I would accept the contract written by their lawyers for their benefit at my expense.

    Its pretty obvious by the way they callously reject anyone not falling in line with their demands that technical expertise is definitely NOT in short supply in this country. Its like paper plates at the dollar store.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]