It's probably relevant that the company was in the Netherlands, not in the US. In my experience Dutch companies are much, much more reluctant to sue than Americ

It's probably relevant that the company was in the Netherlands, not in the US. In my experience Dutch companies are much, much more reluctant to sue than American companies. Even though under Dutch law as under American law it would probably come out in their favour (I say probably because his boss fired him for writing the program on company time, if the company afterwards claims that this was work for hire rather than abuse of company time then they may have screwed themselves on the legality of the firing). I'm also skeptical of such a perfect story, but the company not suing is not such a red flag to me.