[snip] Hi Matt,
I should qualify that I am a US citizen, so the relevant IP laws would apply AFAIK. Now let's say I write a Java library at work, but it's something that is (a) useful and (b) fairly unique, and I think it would make a nice commons component. Time passes, I change jobs, and based--no bullshit--entirely on my recollection of the functionality I had implemented before, I re-implement something extremely similar in the commons sandbox for eventual consideration for the commons proper. I've heard various things to the effect that you can't be held responsible for what you remember (unless you're Ben Affleck in Paycheck); can anyone comment on experience with this type of question wrt the ASF?
IANAL My only experience with this is outside ASF, and as a UK national it may be different. From what I know: - if you re-implement without access to the spec/design/code of the previous version - & you didn't leave your last employment to create this new version - & you are not directly competing Then you tend to be pretty much bullet-proof. It's better if you tell the idea to someone else and then they implement it as there is a gap between the original work and the new work, but basically from my common sense view, you are not doing anything illegal by re-implementing something without access to the source code or detailed design work to copy from. Given that this is for ASF, I'd have to say that legal should look into it and if they think it may be a problem, then you'd have to just accept that it may cause a problem later - I'm also aware that in the US there is a propensity to sue over things that in the UK would just be water under the bridge, so beware of the cultural differences/understandings that I have compared to yourself. [snip] My 2p Kev --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
