Deleting Software I Wrote Upon Leaving Employment of a Company

I would add that the goal isn't just to convince the company to delete the software, but rather to acknowledge and accept that there is no support, no warranty, and if things go wrong it's on their hands.

> If you wrote this software during your working time (nine to five), and were paid for that time, then the company owns the software.

I don't live in the US, but copyright laws are quite homogeneous world wide. But I do have the impression that copyright is kept as long as it is not signed over.

given that the person did logistics without an employment contract, he could notice the company that he retracts all rights to use the software wrote.

Of cause that would cause havoc to the company, and they could probably counter sue that he did something incurring the liability that he was never asked to.

Those are by far the worst software devs, not understanding the implications of their actions. But also that his manager didn't catch up this mishap

> If a work is made for hire, the employer or the party that specially ordered or commissioned that work is the initial owner of the copyright in the work unless the employer or the commissioning party has signed a written agreement to the contrary with the work's creator. For legal purposes, when a work is a “work made for hire,” the author is not the individual who actually created the work. Instead, the party that hired the individual is considered both the author and the copyright owner of the work.

I fail to see how doing this during hours you are paid by the company, on their equipment, and for their specific operations...wouldn't be considered a "work for hire" in copyright law.[0] The VAST majority of work done by salaried professionals during work hours, at work, which can even remotely be demonstrated to benefit the employer...is a "work for hire". IP assignment agreements are redundant, and mostly only "needed" to prevent employees from trying to claim they did it all after hours, outside of work, using zero inside information they knew from working their day job. It's generally trivially easy to show that some of the development occurred during work, on work computers, at work, using inside knowledge of the company (trade secrets).

> Section 101 of the Copyright Act defines a “work made for hire” as A) A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or B) A work specially ordered or commissioned for use if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be con- sidered a work made for hire.

Question 1: Was the work created by an employee?

Yes? Proceed to Question 2.

Question 2: Did the employee create the work while acting within the scope of employment?

Yes? The work is a work made for hire.

This seems to fall under (A). If the "bright-line" tests for (A) fail to affirmatively answer the question, then the totality of circumstances are considered via questions such as:

> Where was the work created? Did the hiring party provide the space, materials, or tools to create the work? Was the work created as part of the regular business hours of the hiring party? Was the work created during the creator’s authorized work time? How long was the relationship between the parties? Did the hiring party have the right to assign other projects besides the one under review? Could the hiring party direct the creator when and how long to work? How was the creator paid? Did the hiring party offer employee benefits? Did the hiring party remove taxes from the creator’s pay? Does the creator have his or her own business? Was the creator able to hire and pay assistants? Was the work created pursuant to the creator’s usual tasks? What skill was required to create the work?

0: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ30.pdf