Who Owns Weblog Content?

dirvish writes "Information Week has a story discussing copyright issues and legal rights associated with employee blogs and RSS readers. Recently, some companies have come out with formal weblog policies and others have fired employees for inappropriate blogging. With an increase in official company blogs, and some large companies like Microsoft and Google offering popular blogging services, the issues become even more clouded. Some bloggers are beginning to speak out about corporate and government control, others would probably prefer to not risk their jobs."

Comments

Re:Common sense...

[Macadamizer]

"sooner or later, they'll find a way to get rid of you without you getting wrongful termination."

I agree with this post, but I just thought I would point something out here. Every state, except Montana, is an at-will employment state. What that means is that unless you have an employment CONTRACT, and not just an offer letter and the like (pro athletes have contracts, most others don't), your employer can fire you at ANY time for ANY reason at all (with the exception of certain prohibited reasons, like firing you because of your race, national origin, that sort of thing). So, you could go to work today, and your employer could fire you for wearing a red shirt. Or fire you just because he couldn't get it up with the wife last night.

Wrongful termination means being fired for whistleblowing, or for using your FMLA or other leave rights, being fired after exercising some other protected right (like making an OSHA complaint), or being fired because of your membership in a protected class (race, gender, national origin, religon, age if over 40, there's a couple of others I can't remember off of the top of my head). ANY other firing, by definition, is not "wrongful termination."

So, they don't NEED the evidence to fire you. They may WANT the evidence because of some internal reasons, but there is no LEGAL reason to obtain the evidence. You can ALWAYS be fired for just about anything.

Of course, you can quit whenever you want to -- that's the flip side of at-will -- they can't make you keep working if you don't want to.

Just wanted to point that out...

altered at-will status.

[slashkitty]

However, most people don't realize that your company policies may alter the at-will status. For example, does your company have an "introductory period," where, for the intro period, where after 3 months, your job is somehow safer. The courts have ruled that this creates an implied contract... so if you're suddenly terminated, check your companies policies! more here: http://www.ppspublishers.com/ez/html/030204.htm

Re:Common sense...

[Tassach]

Yes, it's a been standard clause in the employement agreement for just about every development job I've taken. It's also one I make them amend before I agree to take the job.

These things ARE negotiable, and you're a fool if you don't negotiate. I've only had one potential employer refuse to remove a "everything you do outside the office belongs to us" clause, and that was a BIG RED FLAG which told me I did *not* want to work there.

Job interviews work both ways: they're checking you out to see if they want you to work for them, you need to be checking them out to make sure you wan to work for them. Even if you *ARE* so desperate that you'd take the job for minimum wage and on the condition that you'll service the boss orally 3 times a week, you never let *THEM* know that. Whenever you're offered a job, you always let them think that you have another offer on the table.