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Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

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Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#11

Post by bee_rider »

My gut says, for this sort of thing: why delete it? Let them have it, there’s no upside to deleting it. Who cares, right?

But hypothetically, it probably has no license or anything like that. Not even the “no promises of merchantability” stuff you sometimes see. Hypothetically could there be a risk to the coder? If my buggy “forklift stacking high” software says “stack that stuff up to the roof,” and gets hurt listening to it, am I on the hook? (In that case of course he never should have let anybody use it in the first place, but leaving the job provides a moment of reflection).

Realistically it doesn’t seem like the sort of thing anybody would pursue. But it is interesting to wonder about…

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#12

Post by qiqitori »

There are a lot of comments saying that the situation is clear-cut and the guy is commiting a crime. But that's BS, this situation isn't a normal situation at all. Also, intent matters. If I delete some old code that I think I no longer need, to free up space or even to get my home directory into an OCD state, I'm not liable for destruction of company property even if I accidentally got rid of something that might have been useful. In fact, it could be argued that when leaving a workplace you should maybe make sure that you don't leave behind any customer data that should be deleted.

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#13

Post by tunesmith »

It's more likely it'll work out like how a situation recently worked out at my employer. We had an employee that was too impatient to set up an internal AWS resource using the more time-consuming channels, so he set it up in our hack-stuff AWS account under his own user account. Our teams found it useful, and began to rely on it. He got laid off. Ops deleted all his user-related stuff, including accidentally deleting the tech he wrote that we found useful. They were unable to restore it, and it broke our CI/CD and caused a bunch of problems.

So yeah, if you want to delete something that you voluntarily wrote, all you have to do is wait.

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#14

Post by HorizonXP »

Personally, I don't see this situation as being that different than how people might make jigs, modify tools, make checklists, etc. to make their job easier/more efficient/safer.

Live and let live, knowing that you were intelligent enough to solve a problem where others couldn't. That's a skill that is transferrable and that can't be destroyed.

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#15

Post by Zambyte »

jeromegv wrote: post #6
mirashii wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However copyright assignment still defaults to the creator, so it's still worth asking whether there were IP assignment clauses in the employment contract.

The creator in that case is the company. It defaults to them.

Companies don't make things. People make things.

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#16

Post by Ferret7446 »

HorizonXP wrote: post #14

Personally, I don't see this situation as being that different than how people might make jigs, modify tools, make checklists, etc. to make their job easier/more efficient/safer. Live and let live, knowing that you were intelligent enough to solve a problem where others couldn't. That's a skill that is transferrable and that can't be destroyed.

Checklists are a good example. If you made checklists and shared them to improve efficiency, would it be tort to take every single copy of that checklist just before you leave the company? Probably

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#18

Post by travisgriggs »

bee_rider wrote: post #11

My gut says, for this sort of thing: why delete it? Let them have it, there’s no upside to deleting it. Who cares, right? But hypothetically, it probably has no license or anything like that. Not even the “no promises of merchantability” stuff you sometimes see. Hypothetically could there be a risk to the coder? If my buggy “forklift stacking high” software says “stack that stuff up to the roof,” and gets hurt listen…

I think there is an upside. Or at least a perceived upside.

The employee may feel like they went above and beyond what was expected and wanted to be recognized for that. This may be the only way they get recognized.

I’m not condoning this. And I think the long term costs/price outweigh the gain of affirmation/recognition they may want. But I do believe there is an emotional calculus that goes into this.

Re: Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

#19

Post by Ferret7446 »

qiqitori wrote: post #12

There are a lot of comments saying that the situation is clear-cut and the guy is commiting a crime. But that's BS, this situation isn't a normal situation at all. Also, intent matters. If I delete some old code that I think I no longer need, to free up space or even to get my home directory into an OCD state, I'm not liable for destruction of company property even if I accidentally got rid of something that might ha…

Hypothetically you're right, the situation is not clear cut. But if you're ever asking this question, then your intent 99% makes you liable.

Substitute "code" with "documentation" and it becomes even more obvious.

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