[time-nuts] [OT] Paywall Rant (was Re: Spoofing GPS)

Peter Gottlieb nerd at verizon.net
Thu Jun 28 14:46:30 UTC 2012


 I support that law.  What a waste of talent if bright stars in advancing fields are snuffed out!

Interestingly, I once heard it mentioned (in a business roundtable meeting) that this was one of the "anti-business" laws which must be strongly fought against.

You are right though, just because there is precedent does not stop companies and their lawyers from inserting such clauses into their terms of employment, most of which are non-negotiable for engineers.  The question is, how many individuals can afford going to court, both in terms of cost as well as time?  And courts are unpredictable, so you might even lose and be destroyed financially.  Thus, specific laws codifying such employee's rights are great.  Perhaps such "anti business" laws played a part in the high-tech buildup in CA.

Peter

 
 
On 06/28/12, Jim Lux<jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:
 
On 6/28/12 6:38 AM, Peter Gottlieb wrote:
> Very true, and in some cases (Texas case) a judge ruled that an employee that left a firm can never work in that same field again for the rest of their life due to both positive and negative knowledge.
>

Not in California, where such agreements are specifically prohibited by law.

And, for that matter, the later legal strategy calling out "inevitable 
disclosure" (that is, that if you work in the same field you will 
inevitably disclose something that is trade secret) has been held 
invalid in a variety of courts.

This doesn't stop company A from threatening to sue Company B who wants 
to hire someone from Company A, but it turns the threat into nothing, if 
Company B's lawyer writes a nice letter citing the half dozen or so 
cases to Company A's lawyer. In effect telling A, "pound sand with your 
stupid extortion"

It *is* still effective in the old boys network.. executive from company 
A mentions to executive from company B, "you know, if you hire good ol' 
Bob, it could get sticky, legally. You sure you want to take that on." 
 Of such are things like illegal anti-poaching agreements made and of 
such are consent decrees issued.

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