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from the better-don-your-asbestos-undergarments dept.
An anonymous poster 'The ABKCO Thieves' writes in about new hire paperwork.
I recently started work at a well-known e-commerce business, which is a great opportunity for me. Only after I started did I find out the full inventions, NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), non-poaching, and work-for-hire agreement is onerous. It treats any work of authorship during my employment as their property, even if done on my own time and equipment. I can't post the agreement because it would identify the company, and potentially me as well.
Earlier this year I began contributing code to a GPL v2 project that has existed for more than a decade. I want to continue to do so, but how can I without risking "contamination" of it thanks to this agreement? Part of my goal in contributing is to have real live code I can point to, so going under the radar defeats that purpose.
Are these sorts of intellectual property agreements common?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:29AM
On a less drastic side, you could always try to stay anonymous with any GPL coding you do. Make sure of course that it has absolutely nothing to do with your day job anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:39AM
Yes but anonymity in this case would mean whenever the submitter wants real credit for GPL work, it will involve a nod and a wink to say, that anonymous work was mine, trust me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @09:23AM
Isn't there a term to solve this?
Why not create a pseudonym?