9.3. Rights of Employees and Employers

Employers hire employees to generate ideas and make products. The protection offered by copyrights, patents, and trade secrets appeals to employers because it applies to the ideas and products. However, the issue of who owns the ideas and products is complex. Ownership is a computer security concern because it relates to the rights of an employer to protect the secrecy and integrity of works produced by the employees. In this section we study the respective rights of employers and employees to their computer products.

Ownership of Products

Suppose Edye works for a computer software company. As part of her job, she develops a program to manage windows for a computer screen display. The program belongs to ...

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