Re: Contributing to the kernel while being employed

[Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

On Mer, 2003-07-30 at 15:13, Anuradha Ratnaweera wrote:
> Before working for a commercial organization, one usually has to sign a
> contract which makes all the work done during the period of employment
> (including innovations, "hobby" coding done during "after hours")
> copyrighted by the employer.  This introduces various problems when one
> wishes to do open source development, especially as a hobby.

I've always made sure I had paperwork from my employer permitting it,
and I've never had any problems getting that. Most of the time before
Red Hat I was working for companies that were small (so had a low idiot
ratio) or for companies were while I worked in computing it wasn't
directly related (eg as a sysadmin/network engineer). 

Obviously if you are employed to hack OS internals don't be suprised if
the employer says "no", most however seem reasonable or will agree they
have no problem with contributions that don't relate to their business
area. (So they dont see you as taking things you learned through your
employment and 'leaking' knowledge to the outside world.


Alan