This has nothing to do with my current employer. In the UK it is my understanding that if I sell anything that I work on whether in my spare time or otherwise, my employer (whoever they happen to be) has the right to a cut of the profits, so long as that work is related to what they employ me for. It is my understanding that they own *all* my time 24/7, not just when I am in my office.
I did happen to speak to some people at Warwick who should know about this, but again, this has nothing to do with Warwick specifically. In fact, at the time the rules for my particular institution were being rewritten to try and promote more interaction with the real world. If I have misunderstood the law in the UK on this point then I apologise. One point made to me by the people I spoke to was that Open Source software developed by an international team tends to not fall into this category. The reason is that you are not running a business, but you are part of a loose international collaboration which your employer (usually) cannot claim that you are responsible for. Of course, I am not a lawyer. Bill. On Oct 16, 8:30 pm, John Cremona <john.crem...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think Bill is unduly pessimistic about the attitude of our employer > (University of Warwick, UK). I did actually consult my previous > employer's intellectual property people before putting GPL onto my > code (eclib) before handing it over to William to include in Sage. > They were quite happy. > > On the other hand, I have heard that the U of Sydney has much more > strict ideas about who owns the rights to any work done by its staff > *and visitors*, which is one reason why we cannot expect Magma to > become free soon. > > John > > > > > > > > On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Dima Pasechnik <dimp...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Bill, > > are you sure that you have signed away to your employer rights to your ideas > > ? > > While some not so great universities are just degree-selling businesses, > > last time I had to obtain a permission from my employer for publishing > > something, was still in Soviet Union! > > So I really don't see how results of work done by a faculty member are > > university property. > > > -- > > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > > URL:http://www.sagemath.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
