Slashdot Mirror
GitHub Now Lets Its Workers Keep the IP When They Use Company Resources For Personal Projects (qz.com)
If it's on company time, it's the company's dime. That's the usual rule in the tech industry -- that if employees use company resources to work on projects unrelated to their jobs, their employer can claim ownership of any intellectual property (IP) they create. But GitHub is throwing that out the window. From a report on Quartz: Today the code-sharing platform announced a new policy, the Balanced Employee IP Agreement (BEIPA). This allows its employees to use company equipment to work on personal projects in their free time, which can occur during work hours, without fear of being sued for the IP. As long as the work isn't related to GitHub's own "existing or prospective" products and services, the employee owns it. Like all things related to tech IP, employee agreements are a contentious issue. In some US states, it's not uncommon for contracts to give companies full ownership of all work employees produce during their tenure, and sometimes even before and after their tenure, regardless of when or how they produce it. These restrictions have led to several horror stories, like the case of Alcatel vs. Evan Brown.
That's happened a couple times with me. What I did was cross out the terms I didn't like, initial and date them and return the form. One time they simply counter signed and filed them, the other they didn't like it but after I told them that was the contract I'd sign, they did as well.
Never sign away anything you haven't been paid to do.
As with any contract, everything is negotiable. Just don't use company resources to do it, because then it can be either appropriated or considered theft.
In the past I just crossed out everything I didn't like from the contract and returned it. In most of my current contracts I have an agreement that everything I do for the company will be open sourced.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Posting as AC due to pending litigation on this very topic.
I find that companies vary widely in their stances on IP agreements. In the past year, I have had one company refuse to negotiate on the agreement; one company who was willing to negotiate, but unable to come to terms; and one with whom I had a brief and production conversation which made all parties happy.
I'll give you three guesses to which company I'm working for now.
The company who insisted I sign the agreement as stated, without modification, incidentally had the worst IPRA (IP Rights Assignment) agreement. In addition to assigning themselves ALL intellectual property during the term of my employment (not only on company time and/or resources, nor limited in scope or type), they wanted all IP from six months AFTER my employment. They also required a royalty-free, irrevocable, and perpetual licence to all IP I have ever developed in my life. (This includes music, trademarks, copyrights, writings, inventions, etc.) Worst of all, they withheld the agreement during nearly two months of negotiations prior to my start date and slapped it on my desk my first day of work, claiming it was covered under the jurisdiction of "right to work".
Not to mention they wanted me to disclose to them every post I even applied for for three years after terminating my employment.
Needless to say, I refused. And I suggest you do as well. In my capacity as "not a solicitor", I would encourage you to seek out an attorney to help you decipher any agreement a company asks you to sign as a condition of employment (especially if it mentions the word 'fiduciary', which I have also seen - and which, as I understand it, puts you in criminal law territory rather than civil breach of contract). Know what the text says and what the long-term implications for you and your career are. You have the right to understand what you're being asked to sign, and to negotiate it, even if that negotiation ends with one or both of you walking away. And run, do not walk, away from any employer who refuses to disclose the full text of their agreements before you start work there.
IMO, good agreements should be limited to the period of your employment; cover only things you've been tasked to work on as part of your employment; apply only to trade secrets or other non-public information; and exclude anything you have learned or developed on your own before, during, or after your employment. Anything else is just greed on the part of the employer... and, in the wise words of my mother, 'Do you really want to work for a company that would ask you to sign this?'