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They want the codebase or the project name,github and websites? If they just want the codebase it's a simple OSS fork, why would they need your permission?
They could surely fork it and take it from there. They would rather want that they own the code-base so that their enterprise customers can be assured that it is a product that they control and own. My product, unintentionally, solves a lot of problems for the enterprise product that my company sells.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Listen to this person. The people telling you to talk to your employer are giving you terrible advice. You can still do that after spending 30 minutes with a lawyer, but you can't take back anything you say before you talk to a lawyer.
Always always always talk to a lawyer. If your dog walker (at the peak of their career) friend was like “I need a website” you wouldn’t be like “learn JavaScript” you would say find a programmer. If I had 10 dollars for every time I had to spend weeks convincing an engineer friend to talk to an attorney and then when they finally did it got dealt with in 30 minutes... Lawyers are just “full stack law architects” do y…
1. It never seems to be accompanied with advice on how to find the appropriate kind of lawyer. 2. It almost always seems to ignore the fact that lawyers are expensive. Sure, there are times when that cost is warranted, but I don't think it is right to ignore it. For example, in this case, it is probably only worth consulting a lawyer if the amount of compensation on the line is significantly more than the amount the OP would pay the lawyer. And what if the person you are advising can't afford a lawyer?
Also, concerning your metaphor, I would not just immediately say "find a programmer". I would find out what kind of website they wanted, then depending on their technical skills and what they wanted (and how close a friend they are) I might teach them how to make a website themselves, or point them toward more user-friendly tools to create websites. I'd only suggest they hire a web designer if they needed something really complicated or didn't have the skill or time to learn how to make a website themselves.
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> Whether or not your employer can claim ownership in court depends entirely on your contract. Entirely this. I got burned by this years ago, developing side project that was completely unrelated to the sort of work my employer did, and was not developed using any company resources. But my employment contract specified that my employer had first rights to anything I developed at all during the term of my employment.…
It's been a while since I was at a company that had that clause in it, but if I was in that situation in the future then at the minimum I'd want to ensure that I could still work on open source projects on my own. I was wondering what is the best way to phrase this with a potential employer (esp. if you are out of work, and desperately need that job)? I was thinking along the lines of "Hey, I periodically do voluntee…
I’ll go against the “get a lawyer” advice everyone is giving you. It’s pretty clear you have no legal position. But you are the key player in the project. So negotiate. Decide what you could get out of it and ask for it. There should be no lawyer involved with this cause it’s not a legal negotiation.
I’ll go against the “get a lawyer” advice everyone is giving you. It’s pretty clear you have no legal position. But you are the key player in the project. So negotiate. Decide what you could get out of it and ask for it. There should be no lawyer involved with this cause it’s not a legal negotiation.
Nothing about that is clear without knowing the relevant laws of wherever this is, the contract, the circumstances of development, and who knows what else. This is why legal advice from random internet strangers is a bad idea.
> There should be no lawyer involved with this cause it’s not a legal negotiation.
The very first thing you should learn about negotiation is that you never walk into any negotiation until you know your BATNA. How do you know your BATNA in a situation like this? You talk to a lawyer!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whether or not your employer can claim ownership in court depends entirely on your contract. Entirely this. I got burned by this years ago, developing side project that was completely unrelated to the sort of work my employer did, and was not developed using any company resources. But my employment contract specified that my employer had first rights to anything I developed at all during the term of my employment.…
> I got burned by this years ago, developing side project that was completely unrelated to the sort of work my employer did, and was not developed using any company resources. But my employment contract specified that my employer had first rights to anything I developed at all during the term of my employment. Seriously? Did you not read the contract? Most contracts specifically say that the work has to be RELATED to…
That's a value judgment that others might not share.
Also, that's easy to say if you have a steady, secure job that pays well. But if you don't, and you need a job else you might not make your next rent payment, maybe you can't be so picky.
Same deal if all the desirable jobs in your area have clauses like that and you can't or don't want to move.
> I created product on the side as a side project in my own time and it has become a huge hit in the community to a point where my employers wants me to transfer the code-base over. The company does OSS and my side-project is also Open-Source. Let me restate this: You had an idea you were so interested in you created it in your off time. You made it open source. Your company likes it so much they want to contribute t…
It is not that they want me to spend work time on it. They want me to transfer ownership of the project to them. That's the part that I do not wish to do. The way things work at this place, I'll probably end up maintaining the product until I leave my job. The reason for not transferring over is that once I do that, they will essentially not let me create features that I think can be done better using my product, bec…
Find a lawyer, ASAP, that specializes in employment and / or IP. This is a legal issue and you need to solve it with people that know the law. Talking, signing, admitting things, etc, only hurt you. Depending on your country and state, as well as your employment agreement, there are a lot of impactful variables. Intuition and personal relationships are not going to help you solve this issue, especially, absent knowin…
Thank you for the comment! I totally get what you and other threads are trying to say and I don't disagree with what you are saying. I probably should have cleared this out in my original post (my bad) that I do not wish to pursue the legal route. I personally feel that in my case, it will just drain everyone's energy for not much gain at the end. Also, personal relationships matter to me as well. I'm trying to find…
The way you use that leverage is then explain why you feel something is not fair. In a professional context, you can explain your position in legal terms when you take a compassionate, kind stance, smile and analytically explain the situation from both sides.
It's no more different than handling a code review.
Now, two things can happen: Either your employer is amazed that you both created a new product AND can navigate business negotiations. This is good for your career (unless your employer is an idiot).
Note that creating a new product that people love increases your market worth tremendously (unless you are already at a fairly well compensated level).
Traditionally the simplest way to compensate employees has been to give them a raise. Hint - you could ask this :)
The funny thing a higher pay grade does is that suddenly management will respect you more (we pay him x dollars so he must be awesome).
Or, the second case: you find out your employers 'mr. Niceguy' culture is actually a charade to fool people working at below market rates. At which point the fate of your sideproject totally depends on the legal feedback you received. And it would be better for you to find a better employer.
There are really good books on negotiation and influence. I suggest you read them when you have the time. Examples: Cialdini, 'Influence'. Voss, 'Never split the difference'.