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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 13 2016, @07:47AM   Printer-friendly
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?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tangaroa on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:28PM

    by Tangaroa (682) on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:28PM (#401466) Homepage

    In my case, the changes were accepted without company comment. I did this with two of the big IT labor companies in the USA, and one was a very software-centric company.

    In my case the company fired me, accused me of trying to steal their IP, called me a physical threat to the safety of other employees, banned employees from having contact with me, and told EDD that I had resigned so I could not draw unemployment compensation. All because I had asked for the removal of an arbitration clause in the new contract for my promotion.

    The company was Edgewave. Normally I don't talk bad about past employers, but screw those guys.

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  • (Score: 2) by gidds on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:25PM

    by gidds (589) on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:25PM (#402280)

    Did you modify the contract after starting (and, presumably, after accepting the original contract)?  That seems a dangerous approach.

    (I've always had the contract amended and agreed before signing it and accepting the job, which should give them ample opportunity to address any problems beforehand.)

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