31–40 of 259 posts
Mirror?
I was able to find at least 3 extant forks on Github, but the fact that the project author's employer was concerned about IP rights would make me wary about using such code. If the author "borrowed" similar code from work he previously did from the employer, it is likely that the MIT license of chart.js is invalid.
That's a shame. This serves as a reminder to us all to be very careful when signing employment contracts. We're fortunate enough to be in an industry with huge demand for talent at the moment, so in addition to salary / benefits, things like having the right to open source your work should be included in your negotiations. In my experience, most good companies are OK with it.
>This serves as a reminder to us all to be very careful when signing employment contracts. If he was a full-time employee in the US, a contract wouldn't be necessary for this to be an issue. All work done by an employee on company time or using company resources is 'work for hire' (a term often misused in the software contracting industry, where it rarely applies), and that IP belongs to the company. >In my experienc…
The real question is, what kind of employer shuts down a project like this, cutting themselves off from useful contributions by other people?
A normal employer with a normal-world mindset. This is their competitive advantage and they're keeping it for themselves - even though they didn't (in his reading) buy the original code he wrote. Sad, but a fact of life if you deal with businesses.
Don't just take it down. Destroy it. Make sure that any benefit your employer was receiving from it vanishes. If they claim ownership, despite the work having been done in your free time, demand the overtime pay. Make it clear that OSHA will be involved if they decline. Hardline dickery deservers to be repaid in kind. Ah: Edit still available: Destroy was the wrong word. Make inaccessible to everyone, including the e…
The company didn't get a lawyer involved and force him to take it down, they expressed concern - the author apparently agrees that it's related or similar to work he did while an employee, or there would have been a bit more argument than "oh, ok".
What you're proposing would of course be fine - the company isn't claiming 'ownership' of that code, just suggesting that it might be infringing. But I don't get the impression that they're using that charting library, just similar code written by the same author. They wouldn't be hurt by that at all.
I'd wager this was a threat from an immediate manager. Go over his head. Explain you did this as coursework. Have someone explain the company's view of these "similarities" - Just because their app sorts entries in a table on an iPad doesn't mean publishing that sort.js you built in class is an IP problem. See if they'd be willing to generate some goodwill amongst the OSS community by allowing you to put chart.js back online.
DO NOT SIMPLY ROLL OVER.
And if you get stonewalled, these are probably not the kind of people you want to work with. Start looking for a new job. Don't fear for this one. Programmers, developers, software engineers (pick your flavor) are in high demand.
That's a shame. This serves as a reminder to us all to be very careful when signing employment contracts. We're fortunate enough to be in an industry with huge demand for talent at the moment, so in addition to salary / benefits, things like having the right to open source your work should be included in your negotiations. In my experience, most good companies are OK with it.
>This serves as a reminder to us all to be very careful when signing employment contracts. If he was a full-time employee in the US, a contract wouldn't be necessary for this to be an issue. All work done by an employee on company time or using company resources is 'work for hire' (a term often misused in the software contracting industry, where it rarely applies), and that IP belongs to the company. >In my experienc…
Right, but you can still address this when you're negotiating the terms of your employment.
> Certainly most companies will not grant you a blanket right to open source all of your work for them
agreed, but many companies will be ok with open sourcing individual components, especially if it's done so under their name.
My point is this is another tool for you to use at negotiation time when they've reached a limit on price / other benefits.
I made a backup of it for personal use. https://github.com/danielsamuels/chart-js Documentation (basic, no CSS): http://danielsamuels.github.com/chart-js/
Don't just take it down. Destroy it. Make sure that any benefit your employer was receiving from it vanishes. If they claim ownership, despite the work having been done in your free time, demand the overtime pay. Make it clear that OSHA will be involved if they decline. Hardline dickery deservers to be repaid in kind. Ah: Edit still available: Destroy was the wrong word. Make inaccessible to everyone, including the e…
That's not 'hardline dickery'. The company didn't get a lawyer involved and force him to take it down, they expressed concern - the author apparently agrees that it's related or similar to work he did while an employee, or there would have been a bit more argument than "oh, ok". What you're proposing would of course be fine - the company isn't claiming 'ownership' of that code, just suggesting that it might be infrin…
Sounds kinda fierce to me. I suspect if he'd refused, lawyers wouldn't be far behind. Perhaps I'm just jaded. I've seen some pretty egregious overstepping by companies in my time.
I'm still calling it a dick move. A great deal of what makes him valuable to them, he likely learned at home doing this sort of thing. He may even be driving the product's direction somewhat with his personal exploration.