Sto vedendo questa domanda solo ora. Molti potrebbero aver letto questo articolo su slashdot ma se non lo hai visto: Cosa faccio del mio ex-datore di lavoro Rubare il mio codice gratuito?
Sebbene il post originale di slasdot non sia direttamente correlato a questa domanda, molte delle risposte sono.
Bene, stai pensando di formulare delle regole formali. Ecco alcuni degli estratti dal link che ho citato sopra, che sono esperienze di colleghi programmatori con le loro aziende a causa di politiche riguardanti il contributo a progetti open-source. Ci sono un sacco di risposte belle e ad occhi aperti, ma citando 3 di loro:
Citazione-1:
It's so standard that you should always ask for permission from your employer before writing and releasing open source software - you might not have the right to do so, even if the software is not related to the business of your employer and even if developed in your spare time; the language in my contract is unambiguous about that.
Assuming that in this case the permission to write and release open source software was implicit, it still does not mean the company has lost it's control of it's intellectual property - they can always dual-license it under a proprietary license. They can't "take back" the already released GPL software, and they can't grab any contribution of 3rd parties to that lineage, but they can chose to develop the original codebase in an entirely closed source fashion - it's theirs.
Quota 2:
It is possible to negotiate with a company to preserve your ownership of your own personal pursuits but you must be proactive and generally have leverage (In my case I was holding up a merger with an entire IT/dev department. Your average shmo only has the desire of the company to have them work there). Also expect that the/any company will do whatever they can to own everything you are and do so presume you are screwed and read any documentation you are asked to sign with that intent in mind.
Quote-3:
learn what MIT licensing means... they're entirely free to distribute under whatever license they choose as long as they cite you. They're not stealing it, they're using it under the free license you provided it under.
Per quanto riguarda la GPL - sì, è necessario procurarsi un avvocato lì, che è davvero una violazione. Naturalmente, se hai codificato questo codice GPL nel loro tempo, è comunque il loro copyright e sono liberi di usarlo come meglio credono.