4 ms·
Almost been there. I was once hired and given some sources to work on by a company, and those were the same exact sources I wrote at another company years befor
by squarefoot 5y ago
Almost been there. I was once hired and given some sources to work on by a company, and those were the same exact sources I wrote at another company years before, although my name and all recognizable comments were stripped, save for a few almost invisible traces I left like my initials paired with reserved words to make them appear like directives, pragmas, etc.
The guy who had given me the "new" sources was without any doubt responsible, since he was PM at the old company having access to everything, but almost certainly he had no right to use them over the old company. It took like 10 seconds to me to recognize them as filenames, function names, network usage, variables and structures all were the same, so it went like. "Hah, no problems, I recall this very well, in fact there should be my name somewhere... oh rats, it got deleted somehow, no probs however, consider it done":=).
- Tepix 5y agoI for one wouldn't be so forgiving. Stripping the author's name from source code is an absolute no-go.
- axiosgunnar 5y agoIt's a textbook copyright violation and could earn the author at least four to five figures when he settles.
- dhosek 5y agoOnly if the copyright was registered before the infraction can you file for punitive damages. Otherwise you’re only eligible for actual damages.
- axiosgunnar 5y agoInteresting, thanks
- fastball 5y agoIsn't anything you write automatically copyright?
- axiosgunnar 5y agoYes, and you can get actual damages without registering. It‘s for the punitive damages that you register.
- loup-vaillant 5y agoConsider GP's position: they wrote some code for their old employer, and therefore had no copyright over it (I hate capitalism). Point is, they had very little stake, beyond personal pride and ethics. So now they see that their code has been stolen from the previous company, and they're being asked to work on it, what will they do? Refuse to use the code and risk being fired for being too slow? Report the crime and risk being accused of attempted to cover their own tracks? Talk to HR and being hated by one's closest bosses? I see no way to really win here. At least, not reliably.
- squarefoot 5y agoYes, but that code wasn't mine either as I wrote at another company as their product. When I added my "hidden" traces I did that with no intention to claim ownership, but rather to leave a signature just in case. Technically the 1st company should have sued him, but I can't know for sure the details; the old project was then dead, and he could have purchased the sources legally, although I doubt that.
- rendall 5y ago> leave a signature just in case Just in case what happened? I'm not understanding the work environment that would lead to this practice
- squarefoot 5y agoI honestly don't know, I for sure couldn't foresee that some years later I would have been called from others to work on the same sources. The work environment was really good and I wished the project lasted more, but alas all good things must come to an end. Anyway I had no explicit reason to leave traces other than maybe some odd reasoning after listening to a ("toxic", as some of us realized later) colleague talking about bad experiences in other places and signing his sources in a similar way, but to me it was mainly a "Kilroy was here" thing.
- yaur 5y agoI personally wouldn't work on code that I knew was stolen from a previous employer, especially if its code I worked on directly. Ethics aside, if you ever get caught you are personally going to be subjected to entirely to many questions and its the kind of thing that could follow you around for the rest of your career even if you really did nothing wrong.
- rendall 5y agoI wouldn't touch it, either. It's a crime.