Open Source: you're doing it wrong - the Pyjamas hijack

[Adrian Hunt]

Hi there,

Yes, it's very messy by what I understand and is why Merlio never had it's judgements enforced. Although, employment contracts that were in place at the time (including mine), were declared null and void...   I think it was something like: if a programmer has an idea and uses it within an employers project then the employer has a legal claim to that implementation but not to the original idea. And, a contract that claims IP rights would stop a developer from ever working again as a programmer: this again, being illegal and making the contract null and void.  With internationalization, the problem is compounded as different countries have different laws.

Since my days at Merlio, I have managed to avoid singing any contract that claims IP and I have worked for some large international companies (from within the UK.)


> Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 10:27:27 +1000
> Subject: Re: Open Source: you're doing it wrong - the Pyjamas hijack
> From: rosuav at gmail.com
> To: python-list at python.org
> 
> On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > Google was a right PITA but eventually I found this
> > http://www.legalcentre.co.uk/intellectual-property/guide/intellectual-property-and-employees/
> >  It appears to contradict what you've said above, or have I misread it?  E.g
> > "Under the (Patents) Act (1977), there is a presumption that an employer
> > will own the patent of an invention made by its employee if the invention
> > was made in the employee’s normal or specifically assigned duties and
> > either, an invention might reasonably be expected to result from such duties
> > or, the employee has a special obligation to further the employee’s
> > interests, arising from the nature of those duties and responsibilities and
> > the employee’s status."
> 
> That's patents... intellectual property goes by other rules I think. I
> am not a lawyer, and I try to avoid getting placed in any position
> where this sort of thing will come up, because it's messy...
> especially with internationalization.
> 
> ChrisA
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
 		 	   		  
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