Anyone ever run into the issues of file 'ownership' at work?

Post by **tnf** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:57 am

So at work there is a certain person who is an incapable idiot that enjoys freeloading lessons, powerpoints, websites, etc., off of everyone else.

I'm not one who likes to just fork over PowerPoints, etc., that I spent hours putting together (i.e. digging through websites for good images, finding good animations, in some cases contacting the original author of the animation to get permission to include it...etc., etc.)

Well, we were told to take all of our work and put it on a share drive that all the teachers can access in the spirit of 'collaboration and sharing.' So, I copied all of my worthless crap that took all of 5 minutes to bang out (worksheets with random problems, etc...nothing major), but none of my more elaborate activites, pdfs, ppt's, etc.

I get a memo today reminding me that I don't OWN any of the files I have made because I made them on a district computer with district software and that I am going to either have to turn over my computer so Mr. "IT" at the school so he can do the copying himself (this is a guy who doesn't know what Linux or Unix are - no shit).

Anyhow, I was one step ahead of them with this one, because a similar situation happened to a friend. I do all of my work on my own personal laptop, not the school one for this very reason, so they are going to get a big FU tomorrow.

Back to the topic, have any of you programmer types every dealt with issues of 'who owns what' with your work?

Post by **l0g1c** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:16 am

Shit, I drove a rental to work while mine was in the shop. Do I owe the rental place a week's worth of wages?

Post by **FragaGeddon** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:17 am

I'd take all your worthless shit back and delete the files of the share, but they probably don't allow change on the share drive.

Post by **Pooinyourmouth** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:26 am

I don't care what computer you used. It's still your intellectual property in my opinion.

If I let you use my tools to fix your car, that does not mean I own your car.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:39 am

If that can console you a bit. My brother is working for Pratt & Whitney (United Technologies) for nearly 25 years. Within those years, as a machinist at the time, he made 4 new improvements/innovations to tools and ways to work on some difficult parts on an engine, witch save the Cie 100S of thousand $ per year.
As a reward, he received a watch, another time a nice calculator and then a few pics in the Cie Magazine shaking hands with the big boss.

Post by **Sanction** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:44 am

I created an excel tally sheet for a friend in customer service. When the only guy in the group saw the file, he complained to a supervisor and came back to me to make everyone happy.

Instead, I added some simple vba to check the windows login and autoclose if the person's ID hasn't been specified. I sent it to the whiner. When it didn't work he complained yet again. The supervisor then had my friend email her file and when they couldn't get it to work, I acted clueless.

This isn't something IT would handle, because they have far better things to do than try to unlock an excel module. As for everyone else, a few may be gifted enough to use the autosum.

Post by **Dave** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:10 am

If you write this stuff at work on any machine, your work owns it because you're on their time.. If you write it at home on your time, using your own resources, then you own it.

If it's the latter, copyright your shit and give the school a bill for whatever you're forced to give them before you upload it.

Post by **Canis** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:22 am

At my work we've signed off any ownership of technologies that we develop as university property as long as what we're doing is funded for, and related to, the work we do for the university. I'm sure there are loopholes in the legal rhetoric, but in keeping things simple, if I do any work for the university, that work belongs to the university. If I type up some paper about my work for another institution, then that's not property of the university. I think it mainly has to do with patents and grant material, but I'm not sure what the extents of the legalities are. If I were in your situation, I'd tell them to shove it.

Post by **R00k** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:27 am

I think it depends on the company and their contract with you, but normally, if you create it with company resources - including your time if you were on the clock - then it belongs to them. If you created it at home and with all your own resources, it's your intellectual property.

Post by **neh** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:42 am

unless the ownership of IPis specified in your contract then they own fuck all and its yours - its that simple as far as I'm aware.

I've been 2 years with a single firm and in that time have a tonne of great ideas which we've implemented - the firm owns all the code - the ideas are safe in my head

Post by **MKJ** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:10 am

i have :@ wasnt really 'ownership' but this dude that used to work here totally ignored the whole CVS / SourceSafe system we have and just edited files locally. then when he tried to upload it and the system would say "up to date check failed, please download the latest version before editing" he would just overwrite the crap that was in the repository :icon33: jesus what a dork.
oh and when you confronted him about it (usually in a fit of bliding frustration) he would either outright deny it or come up with something like "yea well the version onthe server wasnt all that to begin with" or "well add your changes again then, that only looked like 10 minutes worth of work".
im so glad this guy got the shaft or i woudlve slit his throat one day :icon33:

Post by **werldhed** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:12 pm

In a lab they go one step further and consider any work you produce that relates to your job to belong to the company/school, regardless of whether you did it at home.

I'm sure you already know how that works at a university, tnf, but I don't know how it works for a high school. It may turn out they can still demand the files even if you did them on your own computer (but I doubt it :icon26: )

Post by **shadd_** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:47 pm

werldhed wrote:In a lab they go one step further and consider any work you produce that relates to your job to belong to the company/school, regardless of whether you did it at home.

I'm sure you already know how that works at a university, tnf, but I don't know how it works for a high school. It may turn out they can still demand the files even if you did them on your own computer (but I doubt it :icon26: )

some contracts cover "moonlighting". meaning you are not allowed to do work on the side that relates to what you do at work.

Post by **plained** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:50 pm

do it for the children :icon23:

put big TNF credits in all your stuff, watermarks contact info , whatever

its best it gets used b4 it becomes obsolete

Post by **plained** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:53 pm

plus when people steal ideas and concepts, its obvios to the quicker people

i mean really .

if your creative , ideas never stop.

take pity on them olo

Post by **plained** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:11 pm

plus if i doen like where im at and what im doing,

i get the fyuck out

thats jus me tho

Post by **tnf** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:13 pm

werldhed wrote:In a lab they go one step further and consider any work you produce that relates to your job to belong to the company/school, regardless of whether you did it at home.

I'm sure you already know how that works at a university, tnf, but I don't know how it works for a high school. It may turn out they can still demand the files even if you did them on your own computer (but I doubt it :icon26: )

Oh yes, I remember my days doing research and how pretty much anything and everything you did was theirs.

Post by **plained** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:32 pm

and hey i doen mean my stuff in a bad way towards you tnf

jus sayin if you can do more

its worth more no?

Post by **Doombrain** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:01 pm

shut up, plained

Post by **plained** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:03 pm

Doombrain wrote:shut up, plained

Post by **Dek** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:12 pm

change all your powerpoints to timed movies and put your credits on it.. So he can't change the credits.

Post by **R00k** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:04 pm

Not a bad solution, although the company might take issue over it, since it belongs to them.

Post by **bikkeldesnikkel** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:13 pm

why would anything that goes beyond your job description be property of ur employer. greedy bastards.

Post by **Dave** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:29 pm

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:why would anything that goes beyond your job description be property of ur employer. greedy bastards.

Doesn't matter if you do it on their time. I wrote a computer checkout system at my last job that went waaaay beyond my job description. I didn't expect to take it with me when I left.

Post by **4days** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:46 pm

tnf wrote:I get a memo today reminding me that I don't OWN any of the files I have made because I made them on a district computer with district software and that I am going to either have to turn over my computer so Mr. "IT" at the school so he can do the copying himself (this is a guy who doesn't know what Linux or Unix are - no shit).

Anyhow, I was one step ahead of them with this one, because a similar situation happened to a friend. I do all of my work on my own personal laptop, not the school one for this very reason, so they are going to get a big FU tomorrow.

Back to the topic, have any of you programmer types every dealt with issues of 'who owns what' with your work?

that thing about files you create on your own machine still being the property of your employer, if you created them for use at work, is pretty much the way of things over here (and i guess in the states).

having said that - if it isn't written down anywhere on anything you've signed/agreed to (or agreed to by nature of your employment) and the guy's since sent you a mail that explicitly mentions district-owned hardware - then there's a good enough chance you can keep your own stuff for yourself.

if they're going to strongarm you into it, then marking your work as your own and rendering it un-editable sounds like a good idea.

how's this central repository organised? are they keeping track of who's submitted and who hasn't? could you produce a chart listing:

big contributors
small contributors
paint-drinking freeloaders

Anyone ever run into the issues of file 'ownership' at work?

Anyone ever run into the issues of file 'ownership' at work?

Re: Anyone ever run into the issues of file 'ownership' at w