Another copyright question

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Viktor Pavlenko <vvp-iRg7kjdsKiH3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org>

| I wrote a program at work because I couldn't find a good open source
| solution. Obviously, it is now a property of my employer. Initial
| request to my boss to make it available under GPL didn't meet
| understanding. So I shut up.
| 
| But what if I re-wrote it in a completely different language,
| preserving the functionality and user interface (command line) as is
| and released under GPL, would it still be a copyright violation?

Legal questions are tricky.  Especially in this area.  It is dangerous
to beleive what geeks like us might tell you.

Example surprising thing:

I was told by a lawyer that I hired that if you are on salary in
Canada, under common law (i.e. without even having in a written
contract) that your employer owns all your work in the field for which
you are hired.  No moonlighting in that field!  In my case, a program
that I was planning on writing in my spare time would be deemed to be
my employers (and they were uninterested in having me write it, for
them, on their time).  And "field" is construed broadly (I don't know
the proper term any more).

Note: this was 20 years ago and some details have faded from my memory
or have mutated.  I Am Not A Lawyer.
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