Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo such as NetBSD!!!

[Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC]

On Feb 11, 2005, at 3:40 PM, Anthony Atkielski wrote:

> Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC writes:
>
>> Their employers are paying them TO WORK on FreeBSD. They are not 
>> taking
>> their code that they write for their employers and also sticking it in
>> FreeBSD.  Big difference.
>
> Not if their work consists of writing code.  In that case, the 
> copyright
> in the code belongs to their employer (in the U.S., and in a number of
> other countries with similar provisions).

Yes there is a difference.  If the employer assigns it to the FreeBSD 
project.  That is what we are talking about.

>
> Under 17 USC 101:
>
> "A 'work made for hire' is—
>
>   (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her
> employment; or
>
>    (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a
> contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or
> other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a
> compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material 
> for
> a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written
> instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made
> for hire. [...]"
>
> Note that a "collective work" is generally a book or a movie, not a
> computer operating system:
>
> "A 'collective work' is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology,
> or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting
> separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a
> collective whole."
>
> "Computer program" is separately defined, which means that it is not a
> collective work.
>
>> In the first case, they are allowing it to happen and assign
>> the copyrights as necessary.
>
> Do they do this in writing before the code becomes a part of the
> project?  Do they have a written agreement with their employees that
> explicitly waives their work-for-hire interest in the copyright?
>


I don't know.  Go ask them.  Look in the codebase yourself, or pay 
someone to do so.

Chad


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