3 ms·

I love how it's assumed, taken as axiom, instead of absurdity, that it's even possible for a company to own a individual's time and mind by contract.

by Zooper 10y ago

daenz 10y ago
Believe me, I'm on your side about that. However, the reports stated he used company resources.
deelowe 10y ago
John was able to do the demo at E3 due to his employment at Zenimax, Carmack used company resources to work on the product, and Carmack was able to source talent from zenimax due to his employment at the company. None of this has anything to do with Zenimax owning his "mind" or "time." It's about Carmack using company resources to enable Oculus. This becomes even more concerning when you consider that Carmack was one of their most senior, if not THE most senior engineer at the company. He's compensated handsomely under the assumption that any great ideas he has will end up with the company. This is similar to executive compensation strategies and carries with it very similar assumptions. The situation is a little more than some ordinary employee exploring their hobby and getting lucky. This is like a CEO getting hired, being awarded a multi-hundred million dollar contract, not doing a single thing for the company that hired him, advertising for a competitor, leaving once his contract is up and also convincing numerous other executives to leave with him at the same time. That's extremely unethical in my opinion. How much all that is worth is debatable, but the court seems to think it was worth $500M.
- jackmott 10y ago
  he enabled Zenimax's game to run on an oculus. zenimax didn't have a VR headset to sell, or plans to make one Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a playstation 4, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS4. that...is what he is supposed to do!
  - sangnoir 10y ago
    > Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a playstation 4, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS4. Your allegory is ending a bit too soon and missing some nuance: Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a Playstation 5 prototype, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS 5. He then leaves Zenimax to work for Sony - on the PS 5
- puranjay 10y ago
  Yeah, people are forgetting that Carmack wasn't the janitor at Zeinmax; he was one of the biggest, if not THE biggest reason why Zeinmax acquired ID in the first place
mingyeow 10y ago
that was the conclusion i jumped to, but i realized that this is not actually the case if i read the details right.

I love how it's assumed, taken as axiom, instead of absurdity, that it's even possible for a company to own a individual's time and mind by contract.

by Zooper 10y ago

I love how it's assumed, taken as axiom, instead of absurdity, that it's even possible for a company to own a individual's time and mind by contract.

daenz 10y ago

Believe me, I'm on your side about that. However, the reports stated he used company resources.

deelowe 10y ago

John was able to do the demo at E3 due to his employment at Zenimax, Carmack used company resources to work on the product, and Carmack was able to source talent from zenimax due to his employment at the company. None of this has anything to do with Zenimax owning his "mind" or "time." It's about Carmack using company resources to enable Oculus. This becomes even more concerning when you consider that Carmack was one of their most senior, if not THE most senior engineer at the company. He's compensated handsomely under the assumption that any great ideas he has will end up with the company. This is similar to executive compensation strategies and carries with it very similar assumptions. The situation is a little more than some ordinary employee exploring their hobby and getting lucky. This is like a CEO getting hired, being awarded a multi-hundred million dollar contract, not doing a single thing for the company that hired him, advertising for a competitor, leaving once his contract is up and also convincing numerous other executives to leave with him at the same time. That's extremely unethical in my opinion. How much all that is worth is debatable, but the court seems to think it was worth $500M.

jackmott 10y ago
he enabled Zenimax's game to run on an oculus. zenimax didn't have a VR headset to sell, or plans to make one Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a playstation 4, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS4. that...is what he is supposed to do!
- sangnoir 10y ago
  > Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a playstation 4, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS4. Your allegory is ending a bit too soon and missing some nuance: Imagine if this story was about carmack getting access to a Playstation 5 prototype, and helping improve it and doing a demo of Doom on PS 5. He then leaves Zenimax to work for Sony - on the PS 5
puranjay 10y ago
Yeah, people are forgetting that Carmack wasn't the janitor at Zeinmax; he was one of the biggest, if not THE biggest reason why Zeinmax acquired ID in the first place

mingyeow 10y ago

that was the conclusion i jumped to, but i realized that this is not actually the case if i read the details right.