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Sued Freelancer Allegedly Turns Over Contractee Source Code In Settlement
FriendlySolipsist writes: Blizzard Entertainment has been fighting World of Warcraft bots for years. TorrentFreak reports that Bossland, a German company that operates "buddy" bots, alleges Blizzard sued one of its freelancers and forced a settlement. As part of that settlement, the freelancer allegedly turned over Bossland's source code to Blizzard. In Bossland's view, their code was "stolen" by Blizzard because it was not the freelancer's to disclose. This is a dangerous precedent for freelance developers in the face of legal threats: damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Is it illegal?
I thought it sounded like a textbook case of tortious interference (i.e. inducing the contractor to breach his contract), which is a civil matter. I expect the contractor could sue blizzard for that if he's sued by his client.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Which would made ir OK if the code was handed over as part of a court rulung or court order.
As much as I understood, handing over the source code was part of a settlement to avoid such a court ruling.
So most likely, that guy promised as a settlement something that he already sold to someone else.
OTOH, if this is a case in Germany, this might be something where the difference between Urherberrecht and Verwertungsrecht (ass opposed to the concept of copyright) may become relevant.
bickerdyke
I'm 100% with you on that. For 15 years I was kind of a freelancer, runnung a three-person shop most of that time. Certain people we didn't do business with because they were devious or deceptive. Not necessarily -criminal-, but certainly not upstanding citizens who were careful to always do the right thing.
I've seen a lot of people get burned by associating with the wrong people, from business issues related to associates who push the limits of spam to charges of drug dealing against someone who hung around drug dealers and hookers. Sometimes the slimeball burns you, sometimes the slimeball gets involved with another slimeball who burns you, sometimes you're collateral damage when the authorities go after the slimeballs. All too often, when you lay with dogs you wake up with fleas, one way or another.