[Znafon]

"Nothing came of it, but I took the code and shoved it into my back pocket for a rainy day.

My idea was to take this code and spruce it up for Uber’s use case."

"My first reaction was to publish the code on Github."

I’m very surprised by this, isn’t the code property of Box, or Uber? The author does not mention their authorisation before releasing it under MIT license.

[bastawhiz]

Author here. The code was originally written outside of work hours. I offered the code to Box and they didn't want it.

If Uber wants a few thousand lines of JavaScript from over half a decade ago that didn't originate with them and that they used for less than a month, they can send me a letter.

[tempaway85751]

... Nothing came of it, but I took the code and shoved it into my back pocket for a rainy day ...

You can't really do this. Depends on your employment contract but code you write for an employer is usually copyright to them

... My first reaction was to publish the code on Github ...

You can't really do that either.

[continuitylimit]

So come on man, let’s be honest here. I got serious sacred masterpiece vibes from this story.

This reminds me of some Hindu parable about people who let go of possessions and head out to become ascetics. So there is this wealthy man and wife and the wife is all upset because her brother keeps insinuating that he’s gonna go ascetic and cut loose. The husband tells her to stop her crying and don’t worry about it, he ain’t going to do it. The wife asks him: ‘but how can you be so sure?’ Because, the husband says, this is how you do it, and then and there he rips open his shirt, tells her “you’re my mother” and heads out to the woods.

[dclowd9901]

That’s really not how it works. Ostensibly by showing it to box, it was written for box, and they would be well within a standard of legal standing to make your life a living hell for taking it elsewhere. You should really be more careful with what you say.

Why would you wontonly open yourself to legal liability? You say “they’re free to come after you” but you really _really_ don’t want that. Ive seen that happen to friends and the stress almost killed them.

[mihaaly]

Depends on the contract but the most I seen stipulate not working hour but context of the work. If it was made by instructions of the company for the company and you got remunerated for that then it is not yours to do whatever you please with it. Better check your contract in details.

Example: "All Intellectual Property Rights with regard to Developed Materials will be exclusively vested in and owned by the Company." (with additional data protection and confidentiality clause protecting company property)

[brtkdotse]

> they can send me a letter.

Why am I reminded of this meme?

https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-are-you-gonna-do-sta...

[slim]

I just want to say I am sorry you have to cope with people trying to convince you you are not free for no reason

[gberger]

Sergey Aleynikov (born 1970) is a former Goldman Sachs computer programmer. Between 2009 and 2016, he was prosecuted by NY Federal and State jurisdictions for the same conduct of allegedly copying proprietary computer source code from his employer, Goldman Sachs, before joining a competing firm.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov

[treesknees]

“half a decade” is practically yesterday in most codebases.

[sidewndr46]

I believe this kind of story is the kind that gives most legal counsel nightmares.

[pc86]

Especially the brazenness with which the author basically says "if they want to sue me for this verified and admitted IP theft, they can."

Sure, they probably won't. But they might. And if they do, you'll lose immediately. Seems like a pretty high risk no reward scenario.

[michael1999]

Uber and the people they hired never struck me as particularly concerned by things like "laws" and "property".

[pavlov]

Oh, you’re missing a few qualifiers. They’re not concerned with laws applied to them, and other people’s property. But in all other cases they’re big believers in law and using it to protect their property.

[PNWChris]

The Levandowski lawsuit comes to mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Levandowski#Civil_laws...

---

Edit:

Since I enjoyed OP's story, I thought I should clarify a bit.

I'm speaking broadly of how I remember (from the outside) Uber's fast-and-loose IP attitudes in the 2010s.

I don't think OP did anything of a similar sort. From comments here it sounds like they used some code they built in their free time that a previous employer didn't want.

At Uber it sounds like they asked and were permitted to post their no-longer-needed code to GitHub. It's got its own GH org and everything.

This whole chain is legally risky (I wouldn't do it and would strongly advise others not to do it).

I feel OPs actions are not Ethically Wrong, though. I wouldn't enjoy living in a world where OP gets sued for this, since it sounds like nobody at work wanted the work and it's not giving competitors an advantage. I won't claim the world isn't like that, though.

I really wish I could share OP's attitude and sense of ownership. I built something really cool (entirely in my free time) for a previous employer's hackathon. That code lives on some server they own now, possibly deleted. I deleted my copy after submitting it to the hackathon because I didn't want to risk anything. Company lawyers make just building things for fun feel so risky! It takes the soul out of our work.

[acheong08]

I find it seriously disgusting that we have given rights to corporations so that they can sue someone over work they did in their own free time.

[kgilpin]

Right. This is so risky. Having to use your personal resources to defend yourself against a lawsuit brought by a large corporation - really sucks.