4 ms·

Simplified, I think it has to do with the burden of proof (may depend on jurisdiction). So your employer tells the court that he can prove (logs) that you devel

Simplified, I think it has to do with the burden of proof (may depend on jurisdiction). So your employer tells the court that he can prove (logs) that you developed some code at your workplace, then 'stole' that code, which is your employer's intellectual property, and went ahead with your own startup, doing suspiciously similar things. Now it's basically your problem of how to prove that it's not like that.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
Depressing, but seems accurate. Only a corporatist society, flirting with fascism, would place burden-of-proof on the employee-- what ever happened to presumed innocence?-- but I guess that's what we've come to. Don't get me wrong. I'd never advise anyone to write side-project code at work. In addition to being unethical, it's also patently idiotic. I'm talking about the case where someone gets up at 5:00 am to write the side-project code on his own resources and then gets sued because his former company decides to be a scumbag.
- imajes 17y ago
  There's some validity in a company sueing an employee because they're not getting enough sleep to perform appropriately at work. However, this is normally cause for warnings + termination. It's unusual for a company to link this with potential unrealized income and therefore try and acquire ip.
  - pw0ncakes 17y ago
    There's some validity in a company sueing an employee because they're not getting enough sleep to perform appropriately at work. First, no there isn't. You can fire someone because he's incompetent because he gets too little sleep to do his job, but suing is ridiculous. What if he just has insomnia? Second, my assumption was that getting up at 5 am implied going to bed earlier. If you're sleeping 1 to 5 and have normal sleep needs, doing this for any length of time will ruin both the side project and the day job. Most people would be more productive on their side project and at work if they got up at 5:00 am to pursue some kind of passion.

pw0ncakes 17y ago

Depressing, but seems accurate. Only a corporatist society, flirting with fascism, would place burden-of-proof on the employee-- what ever happened to presumed innocence?-- but I guess that's what we've come to. Don't get me wrong. I'd never advise anyone to write side-project code at work. In addition to being unethical, it's also patently idiotic. I'm talking about the case where someone gets up at 5:00 am to write the side-project code on his own resources and then gets sued because his former company decides to be a scumbag.

imajes 17y ago
There's some validity in a company sueing an employee because they're not getting enough sleep to perform appropriately at work. However, this is normally cause for warnings + termination. It's unusual for a company to link this with potential unrealized income and therefore try and acquire ip.
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  There's some validity in a company sueing an employee because they're not getting enough sleep to perform appropriately at work. First, no there isn't. You can fire someone because he's incompetent because he gets too little sleep to do his job, but suing is ridiculous. What if he just has insomnia? Second, my assumption was that getting up at 5 am implied going to bed earlier. If you're sleeping 1 to 5 and have normal sleep needs, doing this for any length of time will ruin both the side project and the day job. Most people would be more productive on their side project and at work if they got up at 5:00 am to pursue some kind of passion.