🚀 go-pugleaf

jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:

>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?

If that is the law - please give the cites. I believe that the C/R
statute, and the seminal case (CCNV) make a strong distinction 
between employees and independant contractors.

Bruce E. Hayden
(303) 758-8400
bhayden@csn.org