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Comment on I wrote a program for my boss. How legal is to to write the program again and make it FOSS?

Doesn’t matter if you write it in code or chisel it on a stone tablet. It is still the companies intellectual property.

Think of it this way: You film a movie which for whatever reason doesn’t get published. This doesn’t give you the permission to write a book containing the same story, just in writing. The story is still owned by the film studio. The same reason applies to published material: You are not allowed to write a Star Wars story without approval from Disney, the copyright holder. Fan fiction exists in a gray zone for exact this reason.

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Bipta@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You're sort of missing the point. Two programming implementations are never the same if you rewrite them from scratch for anything but the most trivial program. It wouldn't be a copy of the original and it would have a unique, if similar, implementation. It's not as clear cut as you suggest (at least not for the reasons you suggest, but IANAL.)

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- boblin@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Legally it is quite clear. Taking a description of a closed source program and writing a new one is ok in most cases (unless that description is API docs - see Cisco vs Arista). Taking a look at closed source software and then implementing your own version is poison as far as OSS goes. OP implemented the first version, so that’s already a problem. They may get away is they describe what the program does to someone else and let them implement it, but OP would not be able to touch the source code
  
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  - MagicShel@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I agree. Particularly because it’s less about the truth and more about what can be proven in court. But even more, they don’t want to pay a lawyer a bunch of money to defend this even if you could prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. You can tell by the way they didn’t want to pay a lawyer to answer this question.
    
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- scorpionix@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It is not about the code line by line, but the functionality that OP created for their employer. And yes it is not clear-cut in the sense that in Oracle vs. Google it was AFAIK decided that the idea of the toString Method does not fall under copyright. However, a software that fills a specific need for a company and is then re-implemented/released by an employee? You can bet your ass you are in for at least a lengthy battle in court.
  
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  - DudeDudenson@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah being right doesn’t protect you from a company firing your ass and suing you
    
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beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You can absolutely write a Star Wars knockoff, though. You just can’t call it that. There’s some gray line in there somewhere.

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