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  • From: "Joe Komenda" <joe AT komejo.com>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: [Long] Why Microsoft is a Dinosaur, Tony Stanco
  • Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:12:41 -0700


Excuse me for chiming in on the end of this lovely debate, but I wanted to
add my own experience on this, as well as a question I've puzzled over for
some time.

I make a good living due to Open Source and GPL - HTML, PHP and MySQL are
the most obvious examples of the tools I use, but the fact that I can go to
www.phpwizard.net and get an excellent polling application or SQL manager
for free enables me to be a more competitive developer. It also makes the
products I deliver to my freelance clients more robust, and far easier for
someone else to come in behind me and understand what I've done. In
recognition of all it's done for me, I do my part to give back to the
community. phpEZedit ( www.phpezedit.com ), and the recent training classes
being two examples of this.

I do have a question though - I've worked in a few companies where all of
your work, and anything you create while in their employ, belongs to the
company. In essence, if I made an application while working there, they own
the copyright, not me. Does open source mean that I can use the code I
write, even if I don't work there anymore? Obviously I'm not entitled to use
a complete tool that wasn't publicly released, but if I write a nifty
function that is part of that tool, could I re-use that elsewhere? What
about HTML? How much code do I have to string together before my employer
can claim ownership?

Thanks,
Joe K





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