[luau] Law stuff advice

[Brian Chee]

Another piece of info is that by using "your equipment" for company
business, you've also given tacit permission for use at the convenience of
the company. This is the reason why UH is SOOOO touchy about people using
personal equipment for UH business.

It is NEVER a good policy to volunteer personal gear, and if you must. you
should get something in writing about ownership and in plain english the
intent of the "loan". In the formation of companies, such loans become part
of your "equity stake" in the formation and is considered in things like
bankruptcy or stock issuance.

My favorite saying is that "there are no such things as friends when it
comes to money".

Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20....Ted's suggestions about leaving it
until a mutually agreed upon time is a terrific way of not burning bridges
behind you. (ie. purchase a new server as quickly as possible, and set a
real hard deadline for the aquisition of said server)

My last $0.02 worth is to let them purchase the new server, then just swap
hard disks. (if possible) This minimizes downtime and can be used to
demonstrate earnest effort if something comes back at you. Just make sure
the plan gets signed by both parties before execution.

/brian chee

*DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion and NOT those of the University of Hawaii,
nor any of its departments.
University of Hawaii ICS Dept
Advanced Network Computing Lab
1680 East West Road, POST rm 311
Honolulu, HI  96822
808-956-5797 voice, 808-956-5175 fax

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Kanemori" <ted at hisurf.com>
To: <luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 12:59 PM
Subject: RE: [luau] Law stuff advice


> Randall,
> ****** Be veeeery careful ******:
>
> When you work for "a company", and get paid by that company, the company
> does have certain rights of ownership to "intellectual property". How
> you define intellectual property is dependent on the circumstances. In
> this case, the server was "voluntarily" brought in and used to "grow"
> the business.
> Rather then "just" file and print sharing, it might just as well have
> been used to do the payroll, inventory and invoicing.  If the owner of
> the system quits, unplugs the system and carts it away, it could be
> interpreted as causing a hardship on the company and the employees.  If
> the company loses business and jobs because of this, it could lead to
> litigation.
> The owner of the system is entitled to claim his property, but in doing
> so, should not cause damage, so to speak.
> It could be that the correct thing to do is put the system back
> temporarily, till the company buys another system. Use "Disk Copy" or
> "Ghost" or whatever is handy, replicate the hard drive to the new system
> hard drive, and then, yank the old system. The entire process should
> take less then a day.
>
> The preceeding was just an opinion. If my opinion makes sense, I know
> that this is going to be a hard bullet to swallow but it might avoid
> HPD, lawyers and getting sued(big bucks).
>
> Ted
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: luau-admin at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
> [mailto:luau-admin at videl.ics.hawaii.edu] On Behalf Of Virgil
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 12:20 PM
> To: luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
> Subject: Re: [luau] Law stuff advice
>
> Get your servers and put it in storage. They can't file charges against
> you
> because you are aren't operating the file and print sharing for them.
> They
> don't have a case against you.
>
> But it seems like they are trying to take your servers away from you.
> Get
> that away from they asap. Find paperwork proving that you own those
> servers.
>
> Sorry I can't offer legal advice but I can try to help.
>
> Virgil
>
>
>
>
> > I quit my job. The company changed ownership and I did not agree with
> > the new management. (They wanted to put the servers in the hallway so
> > they could open up another office!!!!!)
> > This company was using my server as their file/print server. When I
> left
> > I took my server with me. I returned all files to them via CD ROM.
> > They are filing charges on me with HPD saying that I should have the
> > file and print sharing operational.
> > Is that true?
> > Members of the company knew that the server was mine so wouldn't they
> > expect for me to take my server with me if I left? And to have lost
> > those services as well?
> > They are also saying that I stole the server since rent was not paid
> > for, but I was able to get into the office without unlocking a single
> > door. Don't I have a right to get my stuff if the doors are not locked
> > and landlord lieu is not implemented?
> >
> > Randall
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > LUAU mailing list
> > LUAU at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
> > http://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/luau
>
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