[ContractPatch] example contract at my previous job

[Antoine Beaupré]

[Update: I actually learned about ContractPatch over 2 years ago, and
sent this message then, but it was stuck in moderation. I was kindly
asked to resend it, so here it is. :) Unfortunately, the actual
contract was made private by the collective, but it might be possible
to get a copy if people are interested, since that was just a policy
change which blocked access to any page not specifically made public.]

Hi!

I am one of the co-founders of Koumbit.org, a non-profit based in
Montreal working with free-software for community groups and so on. I
have worked there over a decade but have now moved on. I recently
learned about ContractPatch and figured it might be useful to share my
experience in designing workers contracts at Koumbit since it's a
problem we had to address early on.

You can see a template for workers contracts here:

https://wiki.koumbit.net/ContratsDeTravailTemplate

It's in french, unfortunately, but basically the contract establishes
basic common principles and delegates a bunch of stuff to a set of
internal rules. Section 4, however, is of special interest here so I'll
try to spell it out one by one. Forgive the quick translation, but the
original text wasn't vetted by lawyers anyways, so YMMV:

4. Non-competition, confidentiality and copyright
=================================================

 1. For the contract's duration, the worker consents to not sign a
    contract outside of the organization with a client of Koumbit

 2. The worker agrees to respect confidentiality of information obtains
    within the collective, including but not limited to: passwords,
    financial reports, contracts in progress, client list, etc.

 3. The worker commits to destroying any confidential information within
    its possession (for example on a personal computer) at the end of
    its contract with Koumbit.

 4. The worker commits to respect any non-disclosure agreement agreed
    upon between Koumbit and its clients.

 5. Any work (software, documentation, draft, report) produced for the
    contract's duration, for koumbit or one of its clients, remains
    property of the worker, but must be available under a
    GPLv2-compatible license, as stated by the FSF

 6. The worker commits to sharing with Koumbit any information relating
    to their work before leaving, if relevant.

Paragraph 5 also includes a footnote pointing at the following URLs:

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FSF_approved_software_licences

Paragraph 4.5 is the most relevant point here, but you'll notice it is
in tension with other paragraphs in section 4. Notably, while the
software produce is freely licensed, it might not give the worker the
right to redistribute the software freely, even if the worker retains
the copyright. Instead, a different confidentiality mechanism kicks in
to enforce confidentiality, as required by contracts.

In practice, all software produced by Koumbit (workers) is free
software. Indeed, free software is one of the founding principles of the
organization and still part of the way the company works even today.

This document is roughly 5 years old now. [Now 7!] Back then, this topic
wasn't really discussed at all, and I'm really happy to see this
happening. I see this is a continuation of the work free software
pioneers like rms have started decades ago; emancipation of workers is a
key component of free software for me, and it was absurd to realize we
were, by default, giving up rights to our work to the workplace we had
created according to the laws in place. It took about *9 years* to
realize this flaw in the legal system and correct it with this legal
hack.

I wish people were more aware of this issue. This should be part of
licensing 101 and part of every contract proposed to employers when
programmers join a new shop. And that's another thing: why is it always
the bosses that write the contracts? Why don't *we* get to make those
rules every once in a while? ;)

Anyways, thought that would be useful for y'all. Enjoy!

A.

-- 
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the
stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
                       - Bertrand Russell, The Triumph of Stupidity, 1933