Re: Software ownership in NH

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 23:54:36 -0500, None <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Group,
> 
> I have written some software a for company that intends on laying me
> off.  Almost all of the software was written with my personal software
> liciences.  Also, most of the programs I coded on both personal and
> company time.  When I wrote the software I put a "C, Current Date, and
> my name" in the program.  

Interesting question.  I found myself in a similar situation some time
ago.  I'm not going to advise you, but in my situation I concluded the
following:

1. I created the software as an employee for the purpose of facilitating
things within the scope of my employment.  The software was a work for
hire making the employer the copyright holder.  I had absolutely no
rights in the program.

2. Getting the company to transfer the rights to the software to me 
was going to be impossible or at the least very impractical.  The
permission of anyone other than a very senior officer of the company
(probably the CEO via the legal department) would not mean anything.

3. The software I wrote was eventually going to be worthless to the
company without someone to update it to changing work processes and
other requirements.

Isaac