nathansmith Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 Hi guys, I recently did a website for a local company using oscommerce as a platform for their online store. The designs that I worked on with an employee of the company required extensive modification and addition to the existing oscommerce files. More recently I have started another project for a local company and was asked to use oscommerce again. As I already had all of the code from the previous site I have used alot of it to develop this new site. I have used a couple of features that I made but in different ways, changing lists to dropdowns etc. However the person I worked with at the first company is now saying that I can't reuse any of the code without his permission even though he didn't write a single line. Does he have any right to stop me using any of the code I've done seen as oscommerce and it's derived works (which im assuming this counts as) are open source? Any help is appreciated as I'd rather not get sued! Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burt Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 The person has no right to stop you reusing any part of the osCommerce code to which you have access. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathansmith Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 The person has no right to stop you reusing any part of the osCommerce code to which you have access. Good to hear! Obviously I've since left the company so does this leave me at the mercy of their terms & conditions on the website considering that the code has been on my machine since day 1, which they had full knowledge of, or can I still use the code? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥Vger Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 Just to clarify, as you have mentioned the word 'Design'. If you did or took part in a custom design for that website and did not specify that you reserve the right to re-use it elsewhere then they can reasonably expect that the design was unique to them - in which case you could not supply the design to someone else. If you did a design whilst an employee of theirs then the design is theirs, no arguement. Vger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathansmith Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 Just to clarify, as you have mentioned the word 'Design'. If you did or took part in a custom design for that website and did not specify that you reserve the right to re-use it elsewhere then they can reasonably expect that the design was unique to them - in which case you could not supply the design to someone else. If you did a design whilst an employee of theirs then the design is theirs, no arguement. Vger Thanks Vger, I'm not planning on re-using any of the design, just the code that formed some of the features. The new company's specification for their site required a lot of similar features so I thought I'd save time and re-use some of the code I'd already done. But he's saying that I'm not allowed to re use any of the features because they belong to him and that they're his intellectual propery? Considering what you said he was an employee of the company at the time and is no longer working their, so am I correct in saying that the design isn't his to sue me over? That would be down to the original company? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥Vger Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 The design would be the property of the "Company" you worked for, as long as you were directly in their employment and not a sub-contractee to the person who's now threatening you. The code you wrote is yours to re-use unless you signed an agreement that you would not re-use it. Flash action scripters often write action scripts which they specifically do not allow anyone they write them for to re-use them on other projects. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the threat. It takes a lot of money to take a threat of action into court. Vger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewmedina Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 and such litigation is VERY complex. In the end it will cost all parties involved more money than feasible to pursue such and action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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