If You’re a Contractor . . .

. . .to whom does your work belong? What about the content and concepts you discuss in company email?

Johnathan Cobb – a former contractor for Google – claims that ideas that he discussed on internal email are his – and that Google has stolen his concept for a Sky component for Google Earth. Cobb is asking $25M in punitive damages. In her brief article Did Google Steal the Sky for it’s Earth? Elinor Mills quotes an internet law expert as saying these rules are unclear. One commenter opinion is that Cobb was foolish to put his ideas in writing on the Google servers – and predicts that when the case goes to court (if it does) Cobb will be SOL.

Personaly – I have a number of questions I wish I could ask:

Is Google Sky really close to an idea of Cobbs?

If so, can he prove it?

Assuming that Cobb right, and the Sky function for Google Earth really is based on his idea – isn’t it more of a bother to go though the bad publicity and the court process than it is to simply compensate Cobb? (Yeah – I know, naive of me . . .)

Did Sally Ride Science or Sally Ride herself receive compensation for this spot?

And oh – not that anyone wants to steal them, but who owns the posts on this blog?

Added 5/7/08   — When this was written, there was a lot of flack over how difficult is was to remove FACE BOOK entries and accounts.  Since then, facebook.com has made it a bit easier to remove information you regret having added.  but BE WARNED — social networking sites are PUBLIC, even if you set your entries to “private” there are instances where your info is easily accessed (eg: if someone has lined to you in a post that is not set to “private.”  Take care, friends.  Future employers, among ohters, use FACEBOOK to get an idea of who you “truly” are.