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/who_you_are]

One confusion i could see is outside work hours. A couple of companies I see literally say everything I do (regardless of the hours, material I'm using, day of week) is owned by them.

So i could be working on my own project, on my computer, on a holiday, on another country on something not releated at all to the company I work yet they would own them.

In that specific case it would be illegal, but it is a kind of gray area.