Hey guys! It's been quite a while since my last blogpost. I've got a bad news for you guys. Sadale had entered limited operation mode. Due to copyright concerns, Sadale will not perform further research and development work until this mess is cleared.
After I stopped freelancing, it took me a while to land on a day job. In fact, I've got two offers. The first offer is offering 30% more salary than my first day job. And the second one is 60% more than my first day job. After briefly working for the company who made the first offer to me, I decided to switch to the second one. Mostly as a tactical move to get me decent compensation in all of my future jobs. As it goes on, it's found that this company I'm working for is rather awesome, tho.
Anyway, here's the problem. For both of the offers, the contract is claiming the copyright ownership of stuffs that I work on outside my work hours.
- Wait what?
Yes. They're claiming it. I pointed that out immediately after receiving the contract for both companies. And, well, I was verbally told that the work that I do outside the work hour wouldn't have their copyright assigned to the company. I didn't further fight for that because I pretty much needed a job after I was done with freelancing. Anyway I think that verbal commitment isn't trustworthy because that isn't in black and white. And I'm sure that the guy who told me that I can retain the copyright ownership of the stuffs that I work on outside my work hours isn't the only guy who could sue me.
Since I've signed that bullshit contract, it means that the company I'm working for may have the right to claim any further R&D work I do, even outside my work hours, which is bullshit. I mean, I'm not using my work hours, nor the company's resource, nor the company's connection for my personal projects. I'm not even competing with the company I'm working for.
I've asked my supervisor to disclaim the products that I develop on project-basis by email. After going thru some troubles, this had went thru. However, I'm not entirely sure if the emails would be legally binding. I really have to consult a lawyer, just to be safe.
Here's the problem. I pretty much need the copyright for everything that I develop outside work hours because I share and publish my works, often under open source licenses for software and electronics, and creative common license for music and other creative works. Since I've signed the contract, I'm no longer able to develop anything outside work hours without risking getting the copyright of the stuffs claimed by the company I'm working for, unfortunately. :(
The wordings of the copyright clause in the contact of the day job that I had before I started freelancing was different. It was worded in a way that they'd only be claiming the copyright of the stuffs that I was ordered to do at work. That why copyright was never a concern until I've taken this day job.
To avoid getting the copyright of personal projects claimed by the company I'm working for, Sadale had entered limited operation mode. Until consulting a lawyer, I'll not work on any copyrightable stuffs outside my work hours.
The current company I'm working for is having a rather awesome work culture. I think that I'm probably able to learn far more from working for this company than the day job that I had before I started freelancing. In short run, I'll continue to work for this company. I'm stopping all of the development work of all of my personal projects. I can't even join events like Global Game Jam with this clause in effect as it'll generate copyrightable, god damn it!
Depending on the advise of lawyer consultation session, I may have to look for another job to get this sorted out in long run. I could also try fighting for the clause. However, considered that it was such an ordeal to get the copyright disclaiming email (which may not even be legally binding) to get thru, I wouldn't be optimistic on fighting for rewording of the clause.
However, works that don't generate copyrightable can go on. For example, I'm particularly interested in solder paste stencil-based soldering. It has been taking me like two freaking hours to produce a unit of ilo nanpa (the Toki Pona calculator). And the demand of the device is just far too low for outsourcing the assembly process because that'd be cost inefficient. With stencil-based soldering, it should save me quite a bit of time on producing the units. As production method isn't copyrightable, practicing the soldering technique will work even with this bullshit clause being in effect.
Perhaps I'll also take time on learning new stuffs, like learning music composition techniques, and perhaps also learning drawing. This will be done by mostly following tutorials available online. I'll expect all of the stuffs that I make for the purpose of learning will have copyright assigned to the company I'm working for. Anyway I won't care because those are just work done by following the tutorials and they won't be publish-worthy. On the bright side, after this copyright crap get sorted out, I'll be a much more capable individual. Then I'll be able to produce stuffs that has far better quality than I am able to now.
To avoid any potential dispute, I've decided not to work on the portable game console ilo musi any further until this situation is fixed. Not even for non-copyrightable works like units production and testing. Therefore, the original target completion date of ilo musi project by the end of 2019 will not happen. This project is now completely suspended. :(
For now, I'm going to focus all of my power on preparing for the upcoming Maker Faire. I'll be exhibiting ilo nanpa in Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019. This will be the first exhibition in my life! I'll probably be producing extra units of ilo nanpa so that they can be exhibited during the event. As the exhibition preparation is quite a bit of work, I'll look for free lawyer consultation session from the government some time after the end of the Maker Faire.
Sadale