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It would be interesting to see if this holds up when it's a contract worker doing it. Being on contract means I am actually working for someone else, and possibly have mulitple clients, so who gets to claim it?
They can't have it both ways. If a company finds it easier to employ someone on a contract basis, not as a permanent employee, then they have much less hold and control over what that person does.
On Tue 08/07/22 05:02 , Technical Writer sent:
>
> On several occasions in the past couple of years, I have seen the issue of
> output ownership come up, with some surprising results. In one case, a
> business declared that it owned output created by its employees offsite and
> off-work, because the business was "providing resources and intellectual
> stimulus that directly resulted in the output." Specifically, their
> argument was that the output would not have been developed independently;
> it required the stimulus of employment-related activities to facilitate
> development.
><Snip>
> This is a big issue, and it directly affects anyone employed in a technical
> field. The issue of an employer providing the "intellectual stimulus that
> enabled or facilitated the development of X" and thereby gaining ownership
> of X, is huge. If what you are doing is essentially worthless, it doesn't
> matter. If you happen to develop the 2008 equivalent of DOS--on your own
> time--and your employer claims ownership, it could be a problem.
> It is not as "clear" an issue as "I did it on my time, so its mine."
> tekwrytr
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