I’m not defending this, but this is an extremely common practice in the US.
It’s even more insane when you find out that IBM has a history of forcing their employees to sign contracts that state that anything that their employees work on at home in their own free time is the property of IBM
jawa21@startrek.website 11 months ago
jaybone@lemmy.world 11 months ago
No it’s not.
If this were such a common practice there would hardly be any US contributors to open source projects.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The legal practice is common. Enforcement is significantly more challenging (particularly when you’re working under an online alias in a niche space).
andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 11 months ago
IP assignment is extremely common, but there are almost always exceptions that you still own the IP if it’s your own time, your own equipment, and not directly related to what you do for your employer.
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It also extends to other fields.
Disney has this rule on all artistic creations of it’s employees
Alchalide@lemmy.world 11 months ago
A company where I applied wanted me to do that as well. I was going to be a truck driver…