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I wrote a program for my boss. How legal is to to write the program again and make it FOSS? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by DroneRights@lemm.ee to c/programming@programming.dev

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I told my boss I had an idea for a program that could improve efficiency across much of the business, and he let me build it on company time. In the long term, he wanted to be able to sell it to other companies. However, the program never got implemented due to personnel mismanagement, and I'd rather be able to post it on my github under a free licence so I can use it as a resume item, and at least someone would have the chance to actually use it. It's all still in my head, and I could write it again if I wanted. If I do, is it illegal to publish it? What if I write it in a different language? Do I need to change the variable names? I did plenty of research and planning on company time to build it, and it's not like I can research it again, it's all still in my head.

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[–] scorpionix@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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.

[–] Bipta@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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.)

[–] boblin@infosec.pub 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] ezchili@iusearchlinux.fyi 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Having seen original source code hasn't been an issue in previous cases where the reimplementation was done in another language with the changes one would expect coding up something a second time, I believe

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