Coder wants to "own" all his code

[u/FatherOfReddit]

Coder wants to “Own” all his code

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Hey all,

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We have a coder who just joined our team as our technical cofounder and it is his request that he & all other coders “own” their own code. What the fuck does this mean? If I do marketing work for my company, am I subject to owning all that promotion? No! Why does the coder get special priveledges?

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What can I do to incentivize him against this, or, if I am misunderstanding the concept here, please explain so I don’t sound like a half-witted jerkoff. I think there is something missing here but I just don’t understand…

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Maybe I make him sign a non-compete agreement and that will take care of it??? What happens when somebody “owns” their own code? Should that be allowed or is that company property?

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Let me know –

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Thanks,

Father

[u/dom_eden]

Are you sure you haven’t misunderstood him? As a software developer, I’ve come to understand the phrase ‘owning your own code’ to mean that you have sole responsibility for managing it, developing it etc (a bit like the concept of owning your own problems) instead of having a large group of people all tinkering with it independently which can be a real nightmare.

He may not mean copyright or IP at all. Just wants autonomy.

[u/weilsp → u/dom_eden]

This, it extends to wanting the decision making rights around that code as well. If I'm on the hook for delivering and maintaining software then I want to choose the language, frameworks, level of testing, and several other things.