You probably have far more un-patented/un-copyrighted stuff. None of them belong to you then?
Let's say that someone hands you out copies of Windows (or any other stolen goods) and tells you it is all legit. You are still liable to be prosecuted.
depriving me of physical ownership
In this case, the somebody is, unarguably, the sole programmer responsible for Freerouting
in the forum he mentioned "All in all the code parts of pure 45-degree push and shove routing algorithms must be far less than 1% of the complete Freerouting code."
even though algorithms are not patentable , the algorithm does belong to zuken...
he said, in a forum somewhere, that 1% of the code came from Zuken
Grab them while they last (If Zuken vaccums the "net")
The more it's mirrored, the harder that is. Here's an S3 hosted copy.
even though algorithms are not patentable , the algorithm does belong to zuken...
This is a really poor way of putting it, if it's not patented all the algorithm can be is a trade secret ... you could say they owned (past tense) the trade secret, which might be true depending on his contract, but that's not quite the same as owning the algorithm.
In the mean time the algorithm can not be called a trade secret any more though. If he was wrong in sharing Zuken only has a claim on him, not on the algorithm.
As far as the actual software, which I used to use a lot - ...
If the algorithm was made on 'zuken time' (meaning he invented it during working hours) it is now intellectual property of zuken
Point is : you invent something during working hours : belong to your employer unless you have written proof it doesn't. Words are volatile...
As far as the actual software, which I used to use a lot - ...
Does it handle ground polygons (mixed with signal traces)? If so, how does it work, do you export the polygon from eagle or add it later?
Also, when you are done routing, do you import it back to eagle (to generate gerbers, DRC, etc)?
Suppose they have known about it for years and tolerated it. Now they suddenly change their mind. That is quite weird.
And by his own description he already had that idea and wrote some code while being employed. That won't help his argument that he can license all the code.
Yes you can have it via to an internal polygon... but it makes it much slower. the polygon is part of the DSN you exported with a ULP run inside eagle.
After you're done routing you generate an eagle SCR script and run it inside eagle, and it rips up and lays down all the tracks as you did inside freerouting.
I saw about your case a couple of days ago.
The Free Software Foundation will pay Till Jaeger,
a German Lawyer, to look at your case and give you advice.
If you wish.
I hope this isn't too late.
--
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
It depends on whether Freerouting and the software from Zuken share the same sourcecode. If that is the case Zuken could claim partial copyright. Some companies like to claim copyright on any code written by their employees during their employment even if they wrote the software in their spare time. That is a bit of a grey area.
One particularly nasty clause that I hope was unenforceable, tried to give the employer rights over any and all future designs relating to their business, which I was told by a director would apply to any work I did no matter if I was working for them or not as they'd assume it was created using knowledge I had gained while in their employment.
While I was and am in no position to be able to fight that if they got legal about it I'd have loved to see them try it in court.
One particularly nasty clause that I hope was unenforceable, tried to give the employer rights over any and all future designs relating to their business, which I was told by a director would apply to any work I did no matter if I was working for them or not as they'd assume it was created using knowledge I had gained while in their employment.
While I was and am in no position to be able to fight that if they got legal about it I'd have loved to see them try it in court.
You shouldn't have signed the contract with such abusive clause in the first place. Strike it out and hand the paperwork back to them. They either accept or they won't.
Sometimes employers will try such things to see whether they will get away with it, but you are not obliged to accept that. Legal or not, it is abusive - nobody can claim copyright on your brain, otherwise you could never ever work for anyone else. They could always harass you by claiming that you couldn't have done this or that without using their "secret sauce". You would probably prevail in court, but why to even let it go that far - just don't accept such crap in the first place!
If you code for a company then all 100% of that source code belongs to them; in the forum he mentioned "All in all the code parts of pure 45-degree push and shove routing algorithms must be far less than 1% of the complete Freerouting code." even using 1% of someone else's code is not good.
If it's only 1% of the code than he can just rewrite it or somebody else to do it in a clean-room mode. Contaminating free code with proprietary code is not a wise move in the first place.
If you code for a company then all 100% of that source code belongs to them; in the forum he mentioned "All in all the code parts of pure 45-degree push and shove routing algorithms must be far less than 1% of the complete Freerouting code." even using 1% of someone else's code is not good.
If it's only 1% of the code than he can just rewrite it or somebody else to do it in a clean-room mode. Contaminating free code with proprietary code is not a wise move in the first place.
While it doesn't matter from a legal standpoint, it is interesting that everyone on both sides of this argument is rounding "far less than 1%" up to 1%.
While clean-rooming can be done, the rub here will be identifying which lines of code need to be re-done. I am sure the records are not clear, and that both sides have different opinions on the matter.