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As an employee you have a duty of loyalty to your employer. I’m not sure about side projects generally, that is probably a Cyprus specific question. But I’d be
by nopehnnope 4y ago
As an employee you have a duty of loyalty to your employer. I’m not sure about side projects generally, that is probably a Cyprus specific question. But I’d be shocked if it’s legal anywhere to release a product that competes with what you work on at your job. That’s just common sense. You would likely be violating not just your employment contract, but also trade secret, copyright, patents, etc. This is egregious enough behavior to even be criminally charged in many places.
- l33tc0de 4y ago'As an employee you have a duty of loyalty to your employer' Incredibly naive if someone does this. In a employee/employer relationship, I believe one should only be loyal to themselves. Again, have integrity and don't steal stuff, but be loyal to yourself.
- nopehnnope 4y agoThis is a legal concept. You have to be loyal to your employer. You can’t intentionally undermine their business, charge them for hours you didn’t work, etc. It doesn’t mean that you have to go out of your way to advance their ends.
- iso1631 4y agoWhich jurisdiction, can you cite precedent?
- nopehnnope 4y agoQuick Google shows this to be true in common law jurisdictions and every civil law jurisdiction I saw relevant information on.
- JohnFen 4y agoMaybe the word "loyal" is confusing here. I'm not aware of any legal requirement for loyalty. There's a legal prohibition against fraud and such, though.
- nopehnnope 4y agoIt is literally called a duty of loyalty in many legal systems. Something you could have easily confirmed with a quick Google search in half the time it took to write your comment.
- lloydatkinson 4y agoHmm yes, in the same way they are loyal to employees despite being able to fire them with no notice? Terrible ideology.
- nopehnnope 4y ago
- dang 4y agoYou can't post like this to HN, and since you've been doing it a lot, I've banned the account. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- aurantia 4y ago> But I’d be shocked if it’s legal anywhere to release a product that competes with what you work on at your job. That happens everyday. In fact most companies are found by people who already work in the industry. You simply should not steal trade secrets, copyright or patents.
- nopehnnope 4y agoEverything can be a trade secret. They’re not labeled with a stamp that says “Trade Secret”. If you’re working on a direct competitor to something you make at work, you are almost certainly stealing trade secrets without even realizing.