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Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#51

Post by neilv »

bitbasher wrote: post #24
greyface- wrote: post #15

I tried to open source a weekend personal project while at $BIGCO via their "Invention Assignment Review Committee". It turned into a minor bureaucratic nightmare and I was ultimately never given the OK to release it, or any clarity over whether my employer was choosing to assert an IP ownership interest in it. In retrospect, I wish I had never notified them of its existence, and released it under a pseudonym instead…

Whenever I join a company I always create a bunch of made up names on my “prior inventions” list. When I open source something I just name it after something I put on my list if the description is close enough.

Do you think your colleagues have the same ideas of what is honest and trustworthy behavior?

In what ways do you trust, and not trust, your colleagues?

How do you feel about that?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#52

Post by systemdev »

I regret open sourcing an offline patch I made for an Unreal Engine 3 game. The game was unplayable due to an always online backend that got shut down, but was still being sold so I required everyone buy a license to play with my mod. I had to reimplement stock UE3 netcode, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. Someone who was mad at me for not giving them more help when they struggled to develop on my software decided to "repack" my software and the game on a popular piracy site, both violating my AGPL license and increasing the risk that the whole project gets CnDd. I guess it's funny that a project violating a companies "no reverse engineering" clause is pissed that someone violated their OSS license, but such is life :D

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#53

Post by ikidd »

jmclnx wrote: post #47

Never regretted. But my "things" are far from earth shattering and most have now have better alternatives. Only one item became a bit popular, but was written for MS-DOS ages ago and I hear it is still used by 1 person :)

PleaseReEnableSpacebarHeating.xkcd

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#54

Post by ryandrake »

lrvick wrote: post #45
greyface- wrote: post #15

I tried to open source a weekend personal project while at $BIGCO via their "Invention Assignment Review Committee". It turned into a minor bureaucratic nightmare and I was ultimately never given the OK to release it, or any clarity over whether my employer was choosing to assert an IP ownership interest in it. In retrospect, I wish I had never notified them of its existence, and released it under a pseudonym instead…

In California you can just open source it and do not need permission as long as you did it on personal time on personal hardware without referencing proprietary IP. Sure, a company could not like you doing that and find a reason to fire you, but they have no valid legal recourse and you may even be able to sue them for wrongful termination. We are one of the only states that prevents employers from having ownership o…

There are two exceptions listed on 2870, the first one is going to be the gotcha. It excludes inventions that:

> (1)Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer;

So, if you work at $BIGCO, they will argue that since they have their fingers in everything, that anything you might work on "relates" to their business or actual or demonstrably anticipated R&D. This is a truck-sized loophole.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#55

Post by ryandrake »

lrvick wrote: post #49
ryandrake wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I see someone on HN talking about their moonlighting or side/hobby project, I get chills and think to myself "Boy, I hope they don't work for $BIGCO, because in all likelihood their existing employer claims IP ownership over that work, and if they ever try to do anything substantial with it, they're going to have corporate lawyers on their case." I've had experience with a similar "committee" (probably same…

Or live in California where forced assignment of personal time IP is illegal.

With an exception that is important if you work at $BIGCO: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44803482

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#56

Post by BrandoElFollito »

ryandrake wrote: post #25
greyface- wrote: post #15

I tried to open source a weekend personal project while at $BIGCO via their "Invention Assignment Review Committee". It turned into a minor bureaucratic nightmare and I was ultimately never given the OK to release it, or any clarity over whether my employer was choosing to assert an IP ownership interest in it. In retrospect, I wish I had never notified them of its existence, and released it under a pseudonym instead…

Whenever I see someone on HN talking about their moonlighting or side/hobby project, I get chills and think to myself "Boy, I hope they don't work for $BIGCO, because in all likelihood their existing employer claims IP ownership over that work, and if they ever try to do anything substantial with it, they're going to have corporate lawyers on their case." I've had experience with a similar "committee" (probably same…

This is insane. When I am out of work in France, I am out of work. Sure, I cannot write software that competes with my company but unrelated open source that does not being me income - yes.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#57

Post by lrvick »

pinewurst wrote: post #44
throwaway889900 wrote: post #37

Got death threats because I wasn't prioritizing stuff people were requesting, said nah I'm done

I open sourced a portable benchmark program and was getting angry responses because I wouldn't accept changes to make it Linux-specific.

Just tell them to fork it. Done. No need to take any grief you do not want.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#58

Post by lrvick »

ryandrake wrote: post #54
lrvick wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In California you can just open source it and do not need permission as long as you did it on personal time on personal hardware without referencing proprietary IP. Sure, a company could not like you doing that and find a reason to fire you, but they have no valid legal recourse and you may even be able to sue them for wrongful termination. We are one of the only states that prevents employers from having ownership o…

There are two exceptions listed on 2870, the first one is going to be the gotcha. It excludes inventions that: > (1)Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer; So, if you work at $BIGCO, they will argue that since they have their fingers in everything, that anything you might work…

Ah, fair. More great reasons to never work for a megacorpo.

There is not a paycheck big enough to make me give up the freedom to do whatever I want with my personal engineering time.

I have only worked for employers that do just one thing, so this law offers me lots of protection.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#59

Post by asciii »

nkrisc wrote: post #13
al_borland wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always just stick my Obsidian vault in iCloud and called it a day. No additional sync service required.

This works very well, been doing it for years. Even works flawlessly for me on Windows using the iCloud client.

Really, how? When I add a new page on my Windows client, it never reaches my phone and is stuck in some weird refresh icon state.

I tried this on a windows laptop and another main machine. I just ended up keeping my iPad nearby.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#60

Post by crazygringo »

neilv wrote: post #51
bitbasher wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I join a company I always create a bunch of made up names on my “prior inventions” list. When I open source something I just name it after something I put on my list if the description is close enough.

Do you think your colleagues have the same ideas of what is honest and trustworthy behavior? In what ways do you trust, and not trust, your colleagues? How do you feel about that?

What do colleagues have to do with anything?

The better question is in what ways do you trust, and not trust, the company you work for?

And the answer to that can be very complicated, and depend on the company a great deal. It also depends on who might buy the company in the future, and they might not be trustworthy at all.

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