[ossig] Malaysian Law With Respect To Employees Who Program On Their Own Time

[Nur Hussein <nhussein@xxxxxxxxx>]

With respect to this FUD article:

http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Products/publishing/itnow/OnlineArchive/sep05/itnowextra/memberview.htm

It's got a lot of idiotic crap in it, so I won't comment on most of it. However one thing did attract my attention:

"A
major flaw at the heart of the open source movement is the
misconception that most individuals actually have the legal right to
contribute their intellectual efforts to OSS projects. In most
industrialized nations, intellectual property (IP) generated by an
employee through the course of his or her employment legally belongs to
the employer. In the UK, this is embodied in the Patents Act 1977 and
the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. Of course, if you are
employed as a janitor and happen to write software in your spare time,
you could argue that the IP that you are generating is entirely
unconnected with your normal duties as an employee and therefore
belongs to you. However, when it comes to software professionals, there
is no such argument. Any software that they write, irrespective of
whether it is during or outside normal working hours, legally belongs
to their employer."

[Blah blah blah, lots of stupid bullshit snipped]

"So, it would appear that the only
people who are actually free to participate in OSS projects are
self-employed or unemployed software professionals, students and
enthusiastic amateurs. Anyone else contributing to OSS projects may be
unwittingly engaged in illegal activity by stealing their employer's
IP. This does not square well with the altruistic image of OSS."

I don't know if that's even a correct interpretation of the UK law, but
if it's true, and if similar laws exist (such in the US, would it even
be constitutional?), it's kind of scary the amount of control employers
want to have on workers. It amounts to a new regime of feudalism, where
the "IP owners" work their "IP serfs" like dogs, and then treat them
like dogs (layoffs, long hours, low wages).

Is there such a law in Malaysia? Any law experts in the audience?

-= Nur Hussein =-