Code ownership questions

[bike5]

I have been developing code on my own time on nights and weekends ect. At work, I need to use the code I have developed and told my boss I would let them use it in their product I am developing as long as I am able to also use the code developed (at work) with my code developed (at home). Pretty much they said no, they want to own everything outright so they want me to develop everything in-house from scratch. Pretty much rewrite what I have already written on my own time for the last month... However, if I rewrite it at work, I can only assume I end up writing it just like I did at home so the code will look almost identical.

Now if I write identical code that I have already written at home, does that mean I can't use what had already been built on my own time since "the company" owns the code now? Wouldn't that be a conflict because the code logic has already been written by me so they can't technically own it outright? Does this mean I have to develop a totally different way to accomplish the same thing because I can't do it the way I did on my own time?

I am just confused on this code ownership area and licensing. Are there any articles that go over legal code ownership issues that are written in a more user friendly manner, not having be to a lawer to understand completely? Thank you for your input.

-Danny

[laserlight]

It depends on the law. In some jurisdictions, the law is such that even if you develop the code on your own time, it still belongs to your employer, especially if software development is what you are employed for. In other jurisdictions, what you do on your own time belongs entirely to you.

As far as this is an issue of copyright, if you own the copyright to the code you wrote in your own time, then you can rewrite it at work and the copyright for that new work would belong to your employer. That the two pieces of work are almost identical does not mean anything, though for your own safety you would need to ensure that you can prove that the work you created on your own time does indeed belong to you.

It would be best to consult a lawyer to be certain, but that may come with a price. I am not a lawyer and what I have stated is not legal advice or legal opinion.

[bike5]

Thanks for the reply. I have a question about what you said about the copyright.

Say I develop some code at work, the company owns the copyright to that code. I go home (my time) and rewrite the code I wrote at work, it becomes my copyright (the code I wrote at home that mimics what I wrote at work)? I feel like that would be stealing because the "idea" or concepts written at work where built on their time, now I take the knowledge of what I did at work and rewrite it at home. However, on the same side I would feel rewriting the concepts and code that I wrote at home on my own time for the company and then they get those concepts/code copyrighted to them wouldn't be right either.

Thats how I feel not necessarily the law, do you know of any websites that go into this in more detail? If possible for California law.

If you can do the rewrite and have copyright on the rewritten code I wouldn't mind letting the company copyright the concepts I first developed at home by rewrtiting them at work. Since in turn I could rewrite what I develop at work, on my own time and have copyright over the rewritten code... Wish I had a lawyer friend..hehe

[laserlight]

Say I develop some code at work, the company owns the copyright to that code. I go home (my time) and rewrite the code I wrote at work, it becomes my copyright (the code I wrote at home that mimics what I wrote at work)? I feel like that would be stealing because the "idea" or concepts written at work where built on their time, now I take the knowledge of what I did at work and rewrite it at home.
Copyright is not concerned with the idea (or the concepts), but with the implementation (the tangible work). If your company owns a patent over the idea that you implemented at home, then you could be in trouble even if you wrote the code at home first.

Since in turn I could rewrite what I develop at work, on my own time and have copyright over the rewritten code.
The problem I see is that you have to prove that you did not copy the code, and if you wrote the code at work first, this could well be impossible. Even if it were possible, as an employer I would be very upset that an employee was engaging in what could be seen as potential competition. Depending on your contract, this may even be grounds for a dismissal.

[leatherback]

In a lot of place you are not even allowed to perform the stuff you do at work in your free time, unless they own it outright. I have just signed a new contract for a university, where part of my work would be to create a module for students to match their skills with required skills in other universities for practical periods abroad.

They wanted to lock e out of webdesign because of this, and I had to negotiate hard to maintain the right to do webprogramming in my own time. In the end we agreed upon specifying which projects I would do for the university, and that could would be theirs alone.

In your case -note that we have no idea what you are programming- I would say that you have the moral high ground UNLESS you are developing something so specific to your job that someone who is NOT in your position would not have had the idea to program such an application. Whatever you agree with your employer, get it on paper, and possibly even include a record of the code that you already wrote at home (e.g., burn it to a CD and both sign on that disk), to avoid future nastyness.

But as laser: I am absolutely not a lawyer. But note that employers can in some locations have a lot of rights, especially when it comes to intellectual property & copyright.

[bike5]

Well I was told (after I asked) that we are allowed to program on our own time even for commercial purposes as long as we are not doing business with any of my companies clients. Basically I am writing a more complex framework over code igniter with a CMS on top of it.

From what I have read I couldn't use my code at my job even if I wanted to because it uses GPL libraries other people have written. My project is also going to be GPL so I can use the libraries but since my workplace wants a solid proprietary program they can't use all the components I am using within my code or even my code since it would have to be licensed with a compatible GPL type licensing.

What I think I understand is that in most GPL cases, you have to extend a compatible GPL to any code you write in which you use a library that was GPL or something similar. I think the exception was MIT in which you don't have to extend the open sourse license.

My main concern is I am writing code on my own time to develop a fully functional framework/cms type system that I can use for my own purposes. It will be open source, I don't care if other people use my work or not but I don't want my current employer to at a later date try and sue me for using my own code because it might look very close to the code I developed at work. Even through the foundation of the code was originally developed on my time before ever starting it on company time.

[laserlight]

What I think I understand is that in most GPL cases, you have to extend a compatible GPL to any code you write in which you use a library that was GPL or something similar. I think the exception was MIT in which you don't have to extend the open sourse license.
The FSF (http://www.fsf.org) party line is that code that uses a library licensed under some version of the GPL must also be licensed under the GPL. The MIT license has nothing to do with the GPL, so it is not an "exception". The FSF party line (http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatDoesCompatMean) is that the MIT license is compatible with the GPL in the sense that "you can combine code released under the other license with code released under the GNU GPL in one larger program".

It will be open source, I don't care if other people use my work or not but I don't want my current employer to at a later date try and sue me for using my own code because it might look very close to the code I developed at work. Even through the foundation of the code was originally developed on my time before ever starting it on company time.
From what I have heard, one way may be to send a copy of your code to yourself via registered post, and do not open the mail unless required to by a court.