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Open Source Developer's Agreement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the keeping-it-in-retrospective-from-the-get-go dept.

ajv writes: "We've just released our open source developer's agreement. The OSDA allows companies or employees to negotiate into their employment contracts the certainty of owning IP they develop under clear guidelines. This will help all the people out there who develop open source software but are afraid to release it, or more likely, are afraid their boss will react and ask for it to be taken down or ask for a cut of the (non-existent) action. Get it on the main Web site, or on SourceForge."

3 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why do we need this? by b0z · · Score: 5
    After all, anyone developing software whilst they should be working is wasting their employer's time and resources, and if they're lucky enough not to be sacked then anything they produce is certainly the property of the employer - this is only fair.

    You have a good point, but if you were a programmer/developer/coder of some sort, you have to sign a NDA, which basically prohibits you from doing any development at all outside of your work environment, and if you do, it belongs to them. That means that the perl scripts I write at home for my website belong to my employer. That is the biggest problem and what the main focus of this documentation is about. There are people that want to work on open source projects at their job, but unless it somehow benefits their employer I don't think it's a good idea.

    And trust me, the more people try and get things like this for open source, the more that stubborn CTOs are going to resist it in favour of the latest technology in Computer Weekly.

    Managers will always choose the products that they percieve their peers would use or think is cool, and the companies that give them the most freebies. Never underestimate the power of a bad product, and a company with money to take your boss to a nice lunch and a game of golf.

    --
    Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
  2. Re:Why do we need this? by Mawbid · · Score: 5
    Try to at least skim the information linked to in the articles before replying. In this case, a quick glance reveals the clarifying phrase "without using the employer's resources".

    And if you think an employer would never dream of taking ownership of an employee's off-hours work, just ask Evan Brown what he thinks of the idea.
    --

    --
    Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
  3. A testimonial by MouseR · · Score: 5

    A few years ago, friends and i had started building an OS from scratch. Dubbed Pandora, we have a kernel that boots more machines than current Darwin can (you guessed it: PowerPC Macs).

    I was responsible for the UI part (I claim no credits to the kernel, which also has a MacsBug-like debuger).

    When I started working for my current employer (which also supports Linux for it's commercial apps), I wanted to make sure that my UI project ("Moira") was safe from any corporate entanglement. I had them sign a "copyright disclamer" wich specifically specifies that my employer disclaims any copyrights and interest in the project, thus protecting it.

    On the other hand, this only covers this project, and I must ensure anything else doesn't go against the company's NDA (which I signed).

    Both parties therefore are protected in what I feel is a mutually equitable agreement.

    Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.