Copyright and License

[Sam Schulenburg]

I have placed code in the public domain just to protect me from any
company that I work for claiming that the knowledge used is their
property. I have become tired of working for organizations that require
me to sign open ended non-discloser agreements that they could use to
keep me from using information that is common knowledge in my trade.
For example 98% of the code I write uses information from outside my
employer's site (MSDN,ASPI,PYTHON) etc. I do not want an ex employer
threaten me if I go to work for a competing company and use this code
to perform my new tasks. I view my code as the tools of my trade. Years
ago it was required that employees provide their own basic tools when
hiring on with a new company. I view my approach as a continuation of
this practice. It also means that I am more marketable if I can provide
quick solutions for prospective employers.

Samuel Schulenburg



In article <japuqxkmss.fsf at helix.twistedmatrix.com>,
  Glyph Lefkowitz <glyph at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
> cjc26 at nospam.cornell.edu (Cliff Crawford) writes:
>
> > I've actually heard the opposite said by people defending the GPL.
> > Supposedly if you release something as PD, or even with a BSD or
other
> > license, then a Big Corporation can take your code, assert
copyright on
> > it without even making any modifications or anything, and then sue
you
> > for distributing "their" code.  So that's why everyone should use
the
> > GPL.  At least, that's how their argument goes..
>
> They *can* assert copyright on modified versions of it, but not on
> what you've released into the public domain.  (two words: prior art)
>
> > I don't really have the time or the legal expertise to sit down and
read
> > copyright laws, and there's so many different interpretations of
the GPL
> > that I'm wary of using that too.  So I just slap a BSD license on
> > everything and hope for the best :)  I think I'll look more into PD
> > though, it sounds like it's not as dangerous as I thought it was.
>
> I think that after this thread I'm going to be putting stuff into the
> public domain... (thanks tim!)
>
> --
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>


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