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Ask HN: If I Write Novel While Working at Google Does Google Own My Manuscript?

9 points by graderjs 5y ago

Flankk 5y ago
It's usually in the contract that anything you do on company time is property of the company. I have a feeling they'd be more concerned about the time theft than selling your my little pony fanfic.
- graderjs 5y ago
  Oh, haha, it wouldn't be my little pony or fanfic. But nice ... Try at trivialization, is it? Or Pony is what you're into? Anyway, is it time theft if you do it while you're at home outside of work hours? I'd never suggest working on while on clock!
  - db48x 5y ago
    Again, it depends entirely on the contract that you sign with Google when you become an employee. Read it carefully. Have a lawyer review it.
graderjs 5y ago
Clarification (thought it was obvious): when I'm not clocked on. But on in my own time, on my own hardware. Not in " work hours"
comprev 5y ago
The only person who can confidently say Yes/No is a solicitor who reviews the contract.
Engineering-MD 5y ago
It depends in the country. The UK differs significantly from the US in this regard. I believe (but I am not a latter and I am happy to be corrected) in the UK that unless your job specifically is to produce that kind of product, it is still your property. Conversely, if you are paid to come up with novel chemical engineering designs and you come up with one out of work time, they still own that.
franksvalli 5y ago
I'm not a lawyer. In my brief time there years back in the US, there was a training course that somewhat touched on this. Essentially the takeaway was that what you developed on your own time and equipment was a bit of a grey area, but likely problematic if what you were building was something that would compete with Google in some way. Since Google owns so much tech in so many spaces, the general argument was that whatever software you were writing on your own time was likely something that could be seen as competing with Google, therefore you'd be better to just avoid it altogether. I'm not sure if the same argument can be made for non-code manuscripts.

9 points by graderjs 5y ago

It's usually in the contract that anything you do on company time is property of the company. I have a feeling they'd be more concerned about the time theft than selling your my little pony fanfic.

graderjs 5y ago
Oh, haha, it wouldn't be my little pony or fanfic. But nice ... Try at trivialization, is it? Or Pony is what you're into? Anyway, is it time theft if you do it while you're at home outside of work hours? I'd never suggest working on while on clock!
- db48x 5y ago
  Again, it depends entirely on the contract that you sign with Google when you become an employee. Read it carefully. Have a lawyer review it.

graderjs 5y ago

Clarification (thought it was obvious): when I'm not clocked on. But on in my own time, on my own hardware. Not in " work hours"

comprev 5y ago

The only person who can confidently say Yes/No is a solicitor who reviews the contract.

Engineering-MD 5y ago

It depends in the country. The UK differs significantly from the US in this regard. I believe (but I am not a latter and I am happy to be corrected) in the UK that unless your job specifically is to produce that kind of product, it is still your property. Conversely, if you are paid to come up with novel chemical engineering designs and you come up with one out of work time, they still own that.

franksvalli 5y ago

I'm not a lawyer. In my brief time there years back in the US, there was a training course that somewhat touched on this. Essentially the takeaway was that what you developed on your own time and equipment was a bit of a grey area, but likely problematic if what you were building was something that would compete with Google in some way. Since Google owns so much tech in so many spaces, the general argument was that whatever software you were writing on your own time was likely something that could be seen as competing with Google, therefore you'd be better to just avoid it altogether. I'm not sure if the same argument can be made for non-code manuscripts.