I've just started a new job, and the company's policy is that they own all intellectual property I create - whether I create it on their time or on my own. That means I can't contribute to open source software, since I can't give away their property. Has anyone experienced this? Does anyone have suggestions on how to convince the comp...
In a situation where code ownership was not mentioned and no contracts were signed who would you assume owns the code? The company or the freelancer? If it was taken to court is there some kind of legal precedent where it goes to one party if nothing was said? ...
This may not be directly related to programming, but I always find it hard to get quality icons that can be used for software. I currently have the need for some type of "green checkmark image", and I always seem to be looking for print, save, delete types of icons... Anybody have good resources? Note: I rather not be stealing someone...
In the course of my work as a software developer, I'm asked more and more often to evaluate patents (competitors' or ours), and I find that I lack the necessary skills to do that effectively. I'm used to reading scientific articles, but patents are deliberately vague, and seem to require a completely different know-how. I'm not trying t...
Are personal tools that were created by an employee of a company owned by the employee if they were not commissioned by the company he worked for? The scenario is as follows: The employee has long since left the company The tools have spread throughout the departments of the company The company does not have the source for the tools a...
there are a few posts asking about free icon sets (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/139944/where-can-one-find-free-software-icons-images), but I couldn't find anything that specifically answered this question: For commerical websites, what is required of you to use the icon sets based upon their license? It seems like with GPL/LGPL...
Am I correct in assuming that .NET is a kind of Claytons Open Source (the open source you have when you're not having open source) given that it is so readily decompiled into a variety of representations? Obfuscation is nothing for someone with a text editor and access to regular expression-based text substitution tools. What do I do wh...
I'm working on an open-source project that I want to release under a permissive license, because it's a library, not an application and personally, I don't like copyleft for library code. If I were to browse through GPL code written in a different programming language just to get a general idea of how to do something, and then write a d...
From your perspective as a programmer, what are some of the pros and cons of releasing open-source hobby projects under permissive vs. copyleft licenses? My personal opinion is that there's nothing fundamentally immoral about improving an open-source project and making the improved version proprietary. This is not free-riding on the ...
Hi, I've developed a little software package and will now go and do the sell to various companies in the target industry. I was wondering what people do to protect their ideas from being stolen by the companies you show the idea to. I'd like to get the company to sign some kind of agreement so they can't reverse engineer or develop th...
I was recently talking to one of the guys in charge of the contracts for employees. I kind of lamented about the work-for-hire clause that says anything I create at work, even if completely unrelated to the business, belongs to the business. For instance, if I write a tool that helps me do my job, even if that tool is totally generic, th...
I'm working on a number of different software ideas culminating in our product release later this year. Some of our ideas appear unique (nothing on Google, in the books etc), but I don't want the hassle or expense of a patent. In fact the opposite I'd like to make sure anyone else (large corporation name here) can't take my idea, reverse...
I just noticed that one of my questions, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/449207/how-can-i-call-activatekeyboardlayout-from-64bit-windows-vista came up in a google search at another site. http://devmeat.com/show/898409 It got me thinking, why would devmeat repackage SO content? Web traffic, money, maybe even an altruistic desire to ...
I have a copyright section in the contract I give to my clients stating that I retain copyright on any works produced during my work for them as an independent contractor. This is most definitely not intended to place arbitrary restrictions on my clients, but rather to maintain my ability to decide on how the software I create is license...
Hi - I was thinking about a software product. There are products that do similar tasks but as far as my market research goes, there are no specific products that this one replaces. So I guess I have a good case. How ever, I wanted to know the answers from some one who successfully converted a product idea into a product (and made money ...
Several years ago I created some custom algorithms and code for processing CNC files (basically ways of controlling automated machines for manufacturing). Now, years later, I found suddenly that my small side project has come to the attention of one of the larger CNC companies and they contacted me and are very interested in it. I am now...
My primary responsibility is a software developer, but I have also been tasked with doing the first level technical interviews of perspective clients. I enjoy it, so I am glad to do it, but I am finding it challenging to objectively screen candidates. I have a list of programming "trivia" questions and even some programming challenges ...
I posted an open source project to Google Code a while back under the MIT License. Recently someone told me they saw a project on GitHub that looked "remarkably similar" to mine. So I go on there to check it out and it looks like they took all of my code and replaced the author name everywhere and posted it as their own. Although I'm hap...
Hello, What are the different ways to register Intellectual Property (Commercial Software)? Thanks ...
At my work we are growing to the point where we are becoming uncomfortable with "walking code". By that I mean code that goes home with developers such as myself on laptops. While I am a developer, meaning I certainly have a motivation to keep development as convenient as possible, I'm also a business person, which means I have a motiv...