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Doing Open-Source Development, Anonymously?

Posted by Cliff on from the the-masked-coder-strikes-again dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I have some free time, and I've recently started looking into some open-source projects that I'd like to start working on. (I'm a great fan of open-source. A package that I wrote four years ago, and which shall remain un-named, is probably running on you Linux system). But I have a problem: I strongly suspect that my after-hours work might be 'frowned upon' by my employer, and although I have no contractual commitment to abstain from such work, and I will not use office-computers or anything, I realize that in these times it might get me into trouble. So I figured I'll use an assumed identity. However, in order to release copyleft software, you have to first claim copyright to it, and this is not likely to legaly hold for an assumed identity. I don't want to release to the public-domain either. So what can I do?"

7 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Become an artificial entity by qengho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You could incorporate and then hold copyleft in the company name. You'd have to use your real name to form the corp, but it would provide one step of shielding for you. Incorporating on your own is trivial and inexpensive (I did it). Get the appropriate book for your state, and you might also look at the Corporate Publishing web site.

    1. Re:Become an artificial entity by epsalon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You don't have to form a for-profit company. Form a non-profit orgnization for the production of software. It's much cheaper and you get tax benefits.

      --

      Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org

  2. Horror story by m_ilya · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yep, this problem is real. One of Perl gurus had to quit open source community because of restrictions imposed upon him by his employer. This story was covered by Slashdot in the past.

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    --
    Ilya Martynov (http://martynov.org/)

  3. People have done it before by randombit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you need help with how to do this succesfully, talk to "Carlo Wood". This person, whoever he/she is, has contributed to GCC, various GNU utilities, and lots of other projects. He also shows up on mailing lists pretty often. Anyway, basically he signs everything with PGP; if at some point he has to reveal his true identity, he can show that he knows the private key to prove that he is Carlo Wood.

  4. If you believe your employer is a threat... by topham · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you honestly believe your employer is a threat to your cause you cannot work on other, on going Open Source projects. You would contaminate the project and would potentially expose it to legal liability.

    I doubt too many projects would survive such an effect. (It could be illegal to distribute the source code, etc...).

    If you really want to do some programming outside of work stick to your own stuff. Open source it if you wish and realize that the project could be killed by/for legal reasons.

  5. Use an assumed identity by dh003i · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just use a handle for the work, and always attach to it something that only YOU can decode (i.e., it's been gPGP'ed), so that if you ever want to prove you're the author, you can do so.

    Post it to a geocities home page from a public terminal using a Yahoo login name you created from a public terminal. This way, its completely anonymous and there's no way it can be traced to you.

    Copyrights still apply if the author is anonymous. Look at the many publishers in ages ago who published under a pseudoname. You may not be able to enforce you're copyleft if you want to remain anonymous, however.

    But, I don't see how that matters. Lets say that you GPL a program which functions as a 3D rendering engine, but is just the core -- not the actual UI. Then some greedy company comes along and builds a user-friendly program around you're GPL'ed program, but releases it under a EULA. That EULA is automatically void, and anyone who gets that program can reverse engineer it to get the source, and may be on legal standing to demand that the company give them the source.

    Alternatively, you can submit it anonymously to the FSF, then they'll enforce it for you.

    --
    social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
  6. Morals vs. the Law by fulldecent · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you violate the contractual agreements in a way where your rights are not explicitly protected by the law. Then you are breaking the law.

    Having anonymous releases is fine, not letting your employer know that you are a more valuable coder than they can tell is your own fault. But deciding to break the agreement you signed is not something you can do because you feel like it.

    You *should* speak with a lawyer and have your contract revised if the contract is in voilation with current laws. Asking your boss to revise their illegal/voided contract is more noble than considering yourself too righteous to acknowledge it. If your lawyer fires you because he though the contract had more value than it legally did, then you could be riding on free paychecks and a new wardrobe.

    But please to not represent the OSS community as moles in companies.

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    -- I was raised on the command line, bitch