5 ms·

My god, i'm surprised that person didn't land up in court :/

Someone1234 11y ago
Is that illegal though? Sure, if you can PROVE it is done on purpose then maybe, but assuming you cannot then is it? Because if it is then any misconfigured version control or any employee that doesn't do what is expected of them is also breaking the law.
- brianwawok 11y ago
  Is it worth the risk to find out? Court ain't cheap, even if you win. As an employee of a company that provides you a paycheck, you "owe" them your best effort. If you don't want to try, quit - but don't sabotage. That is juvenile and perhaps illegal and certainly unethical.
  - klibertp 11y ago
    > you "owe" them your best effort Yeah, and the company "owes" you as high a salary as they can possibly afford...
    - bdcravens 11y ago
      I'd argue that committing compiled binary instead of source is a minimal effort, something you learn the first 2 weeks on the job.
    - brianwawok 11y ago
      > Yeah, and the company "owes" you as high a salary as they can possibly afford... When a company makes a job offer, you agree on the salary. For X dollars, you agree to be their employee and do your job. Your job is not to sabotage a project or commit binaries where people should commit source code... Pretty sure if you had employees you would not love it if they did that.
- leni536 11y ago
  I'm not a lawyer but isn't provability kind of orthogonal to legality?
- tripzilch 11y ago
  Seems pretty straightforward to me: the intellectual property of the code this employee was developing lies with the company (per default). Either he still has the code, in which case he's supposed to hand it over. Or he deliberately destroyed it, which means destruction of company property. Deliberate? Yes, because a programmer claiming "oh didn't realize you wanted to keep the source codes!" is not going to fly very far in court. (BTW I'm modelling this on my assumptions about how this would play in Dutch court, which can be delightfully pragmatic. So there might be some differences how this would work in the USA, such as others commented, ability to afford justice in the first place)
happywolf 11y ago
Nope, the CEO decided to move on. Small company.

Is that illegal though? Sure, if you can PROVE it is done on purpose then maybe, but assuming you cannot then is it? Because if it is then any misconfigured version control or any employee that doesn't do what is expected of them is also breaking the law.

brianwawok 11y ago
Is it worth the risk to find out? Court ain't cheap, even if you win. As an employee of a company that provides you a paycheck, you "owe" them your best effort. If you don't want to try, quit - but don't sabotage. That is juvenile and perhaps illegal and certainly unethical.
- klibertp 11y ago
  > you "owe" them your best effort Yeah, and the company "owes" you as high a salary as they can possibly afford...
  - bdcravens 11y ago
    I'd argue that committing compiled binary instead of source is a minimal effort, something you learn the first 2 weeks on the job.
  - brianwawok 11y ago
    > Yeah, and the company "owes" you as high a salary as they can possibly afford... When a company makes a job offer, you agree on the salary. For X dollars, you agree to be their employee and do your job. Your job is not to sabotage a project or commit binaries where people should commit source code... Pretty sure if you had employees you would not love it if they did that.
leni536 11y ago
I'm not a lawyer but isn't provability kind of orthogonal to legality?
tripzilch 11y ago
Seems pretty straightforward to me: the intellectual property of the code this employee was developing lies with the company (per default). Either he still has the code, in which case he's supposed to hand it over. Or he deliberately destroyed it, which means destruction of company property. Deliberate? Yes, because a programmer claiming "oh didn't realize you wanted to keep the source codes!" is not going to fly very far in court. (BTW I'm modelling this on my assumptions about how this would play in Dutch court, which can be delightfully pragmatic. So there might be some differences how this would work in the USA, such as others commented, ability to afford justice in the first place)

happywolf 11y ago

Nope, the CEO decided to move on. Small company.