4 ms·

I don't think we have sweeping regulations about it, at least in California. Most companies I've worked at have a policy of some "reasonable personal use" bein

I don't think we have sweeping regulations about it, at least in California. Most companies I've worked at have a policy of some "reasonable personal use" being permitted. The concern is usually focused on the other way around: Companies do not want their IP on your personal machines. They can certainly look at whatever is on their own machines, however, regardless if it is your personal data or not. One large caveat: If you do any work on your company's equipment, they may possibly own it, no matter how relevant it is to the company. It's one of the legal tests used to judge the ownership of your work.

sylware 6mo ago
It is even worse in France: if you code open source "on the side" of you work, at home, the company which employs you may claim the copyrights of it. I had to add explicit exclusion of this claim of copyrights in my job contracts to protect my personal work. That was a few years back, dunno if that was fixed.
- bialpio 6mo ago
  AFAIK it's the same in the USA, that's why one of the first questions when interviewing with a company is to ask them about their moonlighting policy if you do want to work on a side project.
  - mindcrime 6mo ago
    > AFAIK it's the same in the USA It varies by state in the USA. Some states have strong protections for work you do "on your own time, on your own equipment, that isn't connected to your work." Others, not so much...
- roysting 6mo ago
  That is not correct; assuming you are not using an employer’s equipment on employer’s time, and/or working on what the employer pays you to do for them or are working on something that is competing and a few other reasonable caveats. It’s actually quite reasonable and logical. https://french-business-law.com/french-legislation-art/article-l113-9-1-of-the-french-intellectual-property-code/ https://french-business-law.com/french-legislation-art/artic...
  - sylware 6mo ago
    As far as I was told, this is not enough, you have to add extra legal care, even more if you are on an 'executive' type job contract, and you have to double that if there is "too much" connection/"look-a-like", between the software at work and the open source software you contribute to "at home". On an french executive like contract, the boundary between "at home" and "at work" is very, very blurry.
- hluska 6mo ago
  This is common in North America too. In Canada, people really should be going through their personal projects and getting a moonlighting clause added before they sign any employment agreements. Employment has gotten tough so a lot of juniors aren’t doing this with their first jobs and we’ll start to see the ramifications of that in about five or ten years.
Darwins_Toffees 6mo ago
Can depend on the field too. I work in drug discovery and if the FDA was to request data that requires my computer they would have access to everything I had on it...Including my texts if I happened to log in to my personal apple account since it's a Mac.
- lanyard-textile 6mo ago
  That's a very good point, agreed.

sylware 6mo ago

It is even worse in France: if you code open source "on the side" of you work, at home, the company which employs you may claim the copyrights of it. I had to add explicit exclusion of this claim of copyrights in my job contracts to protect my personal work. That was a few years back, dunno if that was fixed.

bialpio 6mo ago
AFAIK it's the same in the USA, that's why one of the first questions when interviewing with a company is to ask them about their moonlighting policy if you do want to work on a side project.
- mindcrime 6mo ago
  > AFAIK it's the same in the USA It varies by state in the USA. Some states have strong protections for work you do "on your own time, on your own equipment, that isn't connected to your work." Others, not so much...
roysting 6mo ago
That is not correct; assuming you are not using an employer’s equipment on employer’s time, and/or working on what the employer pays you to do for them or are working on something that is competing and a few other reasonable caveats. It’s actually quite reasonable and logical. https://french-business-law.com/french-legislation-art/article-l113-9-1-of-the-french-intellectual-property-code/ https://french-business-law.com/french-legislation-art/artic...
- sylware 6mo ago
  As far as I was told, this is not enough, you have to add extra legal care, even more if you are on an 'executive' type job contract, and you have to double that if there is "too much" connection/"look-a-like", between the software at work and the open source software you contribute to "at home". On an french executive like contract, the boundary between "at home" and "at work" is very, very blurry.
hluska 6mo ago
This is common in North America too. In Canada, people really should be going through their personal projects and getting a moonlighting clause added before they sign any employment agreements. Employment has gotten tough so a lot of juniors aren’t doing this with their first jobs and we’ll start to see the ramifications of that in about five or ten years.

Darwins_Toffees 6mo ago

Can depend on the field too. I work in drug discovery and if the FDA was to request data that requires my computer they would have access to everything I had on it...Including my texts if I happened to log in to my personal apple account since it's a Mac.

lanyard-textile 6mo ago
That's a very good point, agreed.