Rewriting a Software Product After Quitting a Job? 604
hi_caramba_2008 writes "We are a bunch of good friends at a large software company. The product we work on is under-budgeted and over-hyped by the sales drones. The code quality sucks, and management keeps pulling in different direction. Discussing this among ourselves, we talked about leaving the company and rebuilding the code from scratch over a few months. We are not taking any code with us. We are not taking customer lists (we probably will aim at different customers anyway). The code architecture will also be different — hosted vs. stand-alone, different modules and APIs. But at the feature level, we will imitate this product. Can we be sued for IP infringement, theft, or whatever? Are workers allowed to imitate the product they were working on? We know we have to deal with the non-compete clause in our employment contracts, but in our state this clause has been very difficult to enforce. We are more concerned with other IP legal aspects."
Mod parent up. (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory Meme (Score:5, Funny)
1 - Copy your ex employer product
2 - Get sued into bankruptcy
3 - ????
4 - Profit ???
Go for it. (Score:5, Funny)
You probably have nothing to worry about.
It's all cool.
working for ms? (Score:5, Funny)
Advice on /. (Score:5, Funny)
Can we be sued for IP infringement, theft, or whatever? Are workers allowed to imitate the product they were working on?
Try it, and let us know. And we could discuss the lawsuit later too, I mean, make it a series :)
Re:Get a lawyer. (Score:5, Funny)
Why get a lawyer when you can get unbiased and reliable advice here on /.?
Re:Why make your lives difficult? (Score:5, Funny)
Why not come up with a fresh idea? Spend your time coding instead of in court.
That will never do. Its completely incompatible with the legacy angst and frustration layers they have spent so much time developing.
Re:the short hairs. (Score:5, Funny)
????????????
See, that wasn't so hard!
And slashdot gets mad when I use a lot of "junk" characters, so I will go on and say that this isn't 1994, pretty much every single OS/Programming language/browsers supports lots of characters(ok, so maybe Windows doesn't, but that hardly qualifies as an OS.) Why doesn't slashdot?
So after 3 times of trying to submit, I will type a little more. The whole firehose view on the mainpage sucks. My guess is that I am going to hit submit a 4th time and the lameness filter will still abort my post. Malda must be pro-choice.
On the 5th attempt, I must pare down my joke.
On the 6th attempt, it hardly becomes a joke anymore because the lameness filter is insane.
On the 7th attempt, I'm about to give up.....
On the 8th attempt I think I will submit a bug report. The post was supposed to be a bunch of ? marks because that is what slashdot translates non-latin characters into(though some have found workarounds)....but the lameness filter destroyed my attempt at criticism of the site...maybe thats its purpose?
I know who you are (Score:2, Funny)
Nope, you're good (Score:5, Funny)
If you do get sued, just print and cut this out and give it to the judge and you can go home.
________________________
| . / SLASHDOT
|
| This card may be kept
| until needed or sold.
|
| GET OUT OF JAIL FREE
|_______________________|
Re:Contrary to popular opinion... (Score:5, Funny)
Overhyped by sales drones? Well, even if you don't, at least your colleagues believe in your product.
Re:the short hairs. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Tread carefully (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Tread carefully (Score:4, Funny)
If on the other hand you like jumping through hoops, clicking here [slashdot.org] is better.
Re:A friend of mine did this about 10 years ago (Score:5, Funny)
not everyone has the luxury of leaving a company staffed by idiots to unintentionally help them on their way.
Re:Contrary to popular opinion... (Score:3, Funny)
Moreover, if you ever manage to build a software company where the product team and the sales team aren't perpetually trying to strangle one another... THAT'S your product right there. Tell the world how to do that. In my experience you'll be the first. =)
Re:Obligatory Meme (Score:2, Funny)
1 - Copy your ex employer product
2 - Get sued into bankruptcy
3 - Receive "Bail Out" package from US Treasury in the name of "Economic Recovery"
4 - Profit ???
Re:How to survie in a sue rich environment... (Score:1, Funny)
Obviously a world class high finance type here.
Its called a bearer bond.
what a maroon
There are these people, see... (Score:3, Funny)
Good luck, though. I heard all the good ones are dead or something like that.
Re:A friend of mine did this about 10 years ago (Score:1, Funny)
What's fatstracked? A new kind of pudding pop?