🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <bhayden.724607233@teal> bhayden@teal.csn.org (Bruce Hayden) writes:
>jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:
>>Furthermore, if your institution does not have a written policy in
>>this regard (that you signed!), then any software written by you is
>>your property and your property alone.  (The author of any work
>>automatically has copyright ownership in most countries including the
>>US, unless he/she explicitly renounced such rights.) 
>
>I am not sure I agree. Most faculty would be considered employees of 
>the school. You do not own software (or any other work) created in
>the course of your employeement, if you are an employee - your 
>employer does. Where the agreement is necessary is when you are an
>independant contractor. In that case the work belongs to the creator
>unless a contract says otherwise. 
>
>Some of the inidica of employment that faculty would fail would be:
>- they get regular paychecks, with all the proper deductions.
>- the school usually provides a place of work.
>- the school usually has some control over what they do.

Where do you get your "facts"..?  You're making them up according
to what seems reasonable to you!  (Ok, you used the word "would",
indicating that your writings are conjecture...)

It simply isn't true... just being employed DOES NOT cause you to
automatically lose all rights over your work.  Your employer has to
explicitly enter into an agreement with you in this regard, and you
have to sign it.  Otherwise what you create is yours, and without a
document with your signature on it no court of law (in the USA) would
find for your employer.

Of course most employers of people who create published work in the
course of their employment are fully aware of this and have all these
things as part of the standard paperwork everybody signs when they
first get hired.  If you yourself are a software engineer, why don't
you go over to your personell office and ask to see some of the things
you signed when you started with your organization?

--
Jurgen Botz                  |   Internet: JBotz@mtholyoke.edu
Academic Systems Consultant  |     Bitnet: JBotz@mhc.bitnet
Mount Holyoke College        |      Voice: (US) 413-538-2375 (daytime)
South Hadley, MA, USA        | Snail Mail: J. Botz, 01075-0629