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"Future Tech" vs KDE Developer
I've been a huge fan of Liquid for some time. I've been compiling releases and using on my laptop. The project isn't nearly as ambitious as Enlightenment, but it has some interesting UI ideas and it looks good. I was really pleased when I found out that Mosfet was going to have a shot at continuing the development of the program for FT under the KDE License. At this point, FT ("The Total Linux Company," according to their website) mentioned a few of the features in Liquid as being part of the benefits of FT's distribution. This was to set them apart from "Other" distributions, although even at the time I found it funny, as The final decision in selecting one RPM based distribution over another would rarely be tipped in favor of the one with translucent menus ;)
Anyway the Changelog contains the following line:
* Future Technologies' name has been removed. They hired me to do KDE development, but failed to pay me after promising to do so three times over the span of several months :( I still haven't seen any of the paychecks they said they would send me, and they even went as far as sending me a fake FedEx number. Now they are saying they can't afford to pay their employees.
And soon after Mosfet's website announced that he was leaving Linux and Liquid was dead. Unable to afford to develop Liquid for free, he was seeking work in the windows world.
According to the site, on 10/28, Dr. Giovanni asked Mandrakesoft, the host of Mosfet.org to take down the site, under threat of legal action. But since I see the site still there, it looks like they are standing their ground which is a good thing.
Anyway, I don't know what the moral of the story is, beyond a warning to keep both eyes open. There is a lot of questionable stuff that goes on in this world. Be careful.
(I've emailed Giovanni from FT but have yet to hear back from him.)
If the story is true, isn't it interesting that they can't afford to pay this guy for his work but they can afford the legal costs to sue him? Or maybe they got a lawyer to take it on contingency. If they won the lawsuit, would they have to pay him out of their winnings?
The general public, on the other hand, got a really kewl KDE theme with translucent menus. That's the benefit of Open source. Hopefully development will continue from somewhere to turn this into a mature feature of KDE. If not, then somebody else can pick up the code and continue to improve it. If it wasn't open sourced, you can be assured that it would be dead in the water, never to mature.
Keeping
IANYL
Assuming that everything in the story is true, and that the contract included terms to pay Mosfet for his work, then FT is in breach of contract, and any consideration that Mosfet assigned to FT through the contract (including assignment of IP rights) is void. So all such considerations remain with Mosfet, and FT has no rights at all. In fact, Mosfet has the right to sue for breach of contract, which allows you to up the damages way beyond the real damages.
Of course, this has a lot of assumptions in it. I certainly haven't read the contract, and I have no way to know that what Mosfet and FT are saying about the situation is even remotely true.
-- Nolite audere delere orbiculum rigidum meum.
Mosfet should look at the fine print of his contract to make sure he has fulfilled all of his obligations, including notification of his employer that they had breached the contract and that he was severing it. With common contractual provisions in place, it's quite possible that Mosfet himself could be found in breach of contract, if he did not submit a formal WRITTEN letter to his employer (at a contractually defined postal address) notifying them of their failings and his cancellation of the contract. BTW: has Mosfet also submitted a bill? If Mosfet hasn't precisely adhered to the contract himself, he may find himself effectively trading his failure(s) for his employer's and wind up with zilch, nada, nothing in return.
I've seen a few of these disputes with ex-employees. In many cases, the ex-employee posts material that is inaccurate (or even downright lies). Even so, the company can only hurt itself by getting into a public debate, and usually is advised to avoid this.
Of course, it is also possible the facts are exactly as he stated. Without more information, you just can't tell.
That is not the issue!
Future Tech hired the man. He does some work, they fork over some money. Plain and simple.
Companies can't get away with acting like kids, i.e. "Hey, this guy really is a pain in the ass, let's just NOT pay him for his work".
If the company doesn't want to pay him, fine, then why don't they just fire him?
This may be slightly offtopic, but my thought came about because of how one problem with a developer can cascade into problems for other people, organizations, and companies.
:)
What if somebody began contributing code to the Linux Kernel? It might take a while for them to develop a good reputation, but perhaps over a year or two make a number of important contributions to the system. Then after they've thoroughly integrated their code into the kernel it turns out that their code violates somebody's intelletcual property. Be that copyright, patent law, etc. How would that effect the Kernel?
What I was considering is that this might be a back door tactic that somebody like Microsoft could use. If they could get people to infest the kernel with copyrighted and patented code it could really hose up the works it seems.
I don't know the feasibility of such an attack, but I figured I'd throw it out there and see what people think. Please feel free to gun down my post
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This shit happens every day. Maybe it's time for an Open Source blacklist?
(not that I'd want to have anything to do with it.)
http://www.futuretg.com/FT/contact.html
LOL, odd isn't it, the really swish building is 'under setup' and their current premise sis a shit hole.
This is not the first time Mosfet huffed and puffed. He has done it to KDE. Not once, but twice. In a smaller way, he did it to Mandrakesoft. Now he did it to Future Technologies. I am a big KDE advocate. I also use Mandrake Linux. I follow what happens with the KDE Community, and it is apparent that Mosfet has serious "mood swings."
I would assume that he's hiding something, just because of his rep.
You don't go publicly badmouthing a company and burning your bridges because of private business dealings gone sour. That's what you'd expect from a 14 year old who hasn't been around.
It appears you didn't read the case. That was the precise issue before the Court in CCNV v. Reid. They wrote:
Why you refuse to see that a freelance sculpture is the same as freelance software is beyond me. There is a list of types of work that can be work for hire (see below). Software, like sculpture, is not one of them. Independent contractors who create software retain the copyright unless it is explicitly signed over. That's the law. See for example, this resource if you need to hear it from a lawyer.
At least, that is what everything I have ever read or heard implies.
Well, then you are reading or hearing the wrong thing. In particular, you could try THE LAW ITSELF (gasp), which is discussed in the case I cited. 17 USC 101:
* A ''work made for hire'' is -
* (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
* (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.