Re: Contributing to the kernel while being employed

[Anuradha Ratnaweera <anuradha@ratnaweera.net>]

On Wed, 2003-07-30 at 20:36, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
> Previously Anuradha Ratnaweera wrote:
> > Before working for a commercial organization, one usually has to sign
> a
> > contract which makes all the work done during the period of employment
> > (including innovations, "hobby" coding done during "after hours")
> > copyrighted by the employer.  This introduces various problems when
> one
> > wishes to do open source development, especially as a hobby.
> 
> If you signed a contract which said that you might be out of luck,
> depending on you local law. If your law allows a company to demand
> ownership of everything you do in your own time without using company
> resources than you can't work on open source projects unless your
> employer allows you to. Personally, I would never sign any contract with
> a clause like that.

What if the employer _is_ interested in contributing to the open source
under company copyright and doesn't mind using company resources, but
the employee prefers to keep copyright to himself.  The only way he can
do it is by using his own resources and time (off hours).  But this is
not possible if there is a contract that coveres the full employment
period, including after hours.

The reason why I wanted to bring up this matter was to figure out the
possibility of doing open source work purely as hobby.  One can't use
his company name for _that_.  When the company name is used, it is no
longer a hobby. ;-)

	Anuradha