Apple Claims Ownership of Shareware

(54)T-Dub writes "Cricket Media recently released 'Netflix Fanatic', an OSX based shareware app that lets you manage your rental queue without logging on to Netflix. An article on Think Secret reveals the reason behind it's mysterious disappearance. Apparently the developer's employer, Apple, has claimed ownership over the application's name and source code. The developer claims that under Section 2870 of the California Labor Code this is illegal. The law states that if a company has an employment agreement with provisions saying employees must assign the rights of their inventions to their employer, those sections do not apply if the employee developed it on his or her own time, without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information. Within Apple, there's unsubstantiated speculation that Apple wants to include the Netflix Fanatic code in a new version of Sherlock." Also, they're presumably not too worried with employee morale.

Order Frenzy

[jonatanw]

Maybe Steve Jobs order a lot of DVD's online... He needs to streamline the ordering process.

I, For One,

[Tsali]

...Am shocked that a corporation would dare do such a thing.

Now, what's the article about again?

Re:Apple, what's your problem?

[scovetta]

Apple: "We'll give you your old job back if you give us the program"

Developer: "What do you mean?... oh.."

Re:How long...

[Anonymous Coward]

Two minutes [slashdot.org], apparently.

Re:Apple, what's your problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know why everyone is acting so surprised. Apple have a long and well known history of stealing. They stole the Apple II from Steve Wozniak. They stole the GUI from Bill Gates when he was working as a copier repair man at Xerox (Still, he got the last laugh!) They stole the iMac from Maynards Wine Gums. They stole the "desklamp" Mac from Ikea. Everything they have ever done has been stolen. This is nothing, and any Apple employee should expect such behavour.

Re:Misleading article title

[HarveyBirdman]

Maybe I'm still not used to the editors deliberately allowing sensational headlines.

Hang out at ZDNet. You'll get used to it. You'll also get used to headlines that have no scientifically measureable relation to the stories beneath them.

Re:Shocking...

[Anonymous Custard]

Yet another slashdot story filled with rampant speculation and innuendo.

So, let's all rant and rave for 500 messages. Then, in 3 days, the real story will come out and be the complete opposite. And it won't ever be mentioned again on slashdot.

Hurry, we only have three days! Unless of course the article gets reposted, which should buy us at least one more day of ranting before the truth comes out.

And so...

[Pedrito]

By reading this posting, you implicitly agree that all code you have written in the past, are writing now and in the future belongs to me. I would appreciate it if you just zipped up all your code and sent it along. Thanks.

Re:Shocking...

[AKnightCowboy]

Knee-jerk-pot-smoking hippies! The whole bunch of you!

Snotty-overpriced-hardware-buying-nouveau-art-deco -loving-yuppie scumbag. But hey, I can say that since I'm a Mac user too. :-)

It's Tuesday...

[InterruptDescriptorT]

So that means Apple's bad today, right?

I half expect to see a post praising Sony in a couple of hours--wait, no, Sony's only good on Tuesday afternoon in odd months. My error.

Re:Program under a psudoname

[Anonymous Coward]

Did some leave the door open and let a Human Resources Director in here?

And they are only going to support it in 10.4...

[ErnstKompressor]

I heard from a homeless guy on the street who said he was dumpster diving near the Apple campus, where he overheard Jobs talking loudly on a cell phone about some "big plan to integrate Netflix into 10.4 thereby completing their nefarious conspiracy to force users to upgrade to the next revision of OS X...We'll trick those bastards yet..."

Needless to say, Jobs noticed the guy eavesdropping, and immediately hired him to work on an up-and-coming Apple branded PDA/cell phone...

Re:Slavery?

[RiffRafff]

No one forced you to work for that company. You knew (or should have known) what you were getting into. Most companies DO own your off-time creations.

I suppose that if you're worried about your employer getting your code, you could always get a job where you ask, "Would you like fries with that?"

Re:Are they psychic?

[gnu-generation-one]

"It's a win-win situation from the company's viewpoint."

Until you book 500 hours retrospectively on your timesheet and book it to the budget of whoever claimed the project...

If a worse analogy exists...

[HarveyBirdman]

...well, someone had better kill it before it collapses the fragile idea that is this universe into a singularity of nothingness.