Really Fucking Annoyed Right Now
OK, I am starting to like having this blog since I have something to vent and this feels like a safe place to do so.
A year and a half ago I was looking for freelance work, so I answered an ad on Craigslist looking for a PHP Developer. I knew a little bit of PHP and was looking to learn more. I met with the company's lead PHP developer for an interview. He liked my work, and was particularly interested in my Flash experience. He got the OK from the company's CEO to hire me for 20 hours a week at a rate of $20 an hour. It was a really low rate, but I was desperate for work so I took it. I did some Flash work for said company and they were really pleased. They eventually said that I could work 40 hours a week. I was still only getting paid $20 an hour, but it was consistently steady work and I loved being an Independent Contractor. I also genuinely liked the company's mission. The CEO evangelized a philosophy about us using technology to change the world and make it a better place. What was even better, it seemed like the projects I was creating were also applications that I would want to use on my own websites when I was finished. This was the main reason why I did not raise my rates. I was also making plenty of money to pay for everything so I did not complain.
Over some time, the CEO 's relationship started to break down with the lead PHP Developer. He started trying to put me in the middle of what seemed to be ego disputes between both of them. It was very negative and I started getting tired of it. I started feeling like I wanted to get out of this situation, but I did not want to leave them in the middle of the project. For one, I thought it was more ethical to finish a project before I left so they would not be left high and dry, and secondly, I wanted to finish the projects I was working on because I wanted to use them for my own site.
Over the course of this time, the CEO blatantly expressed that he wanted to sell the work I was doing for him as part of a greater software package that was the result of the work the lead PHP Developer and I had been doing. He told me that he would offer me profit sharing in the sales of the software. I was totally okay with that, and I expressed in return that I wanted to use the software package on my own website. Everything seemed cool, until things really broke down between the CEO and the lead PHP Developer (furthermore known as LPD). LPD's father became gravely ill with cancer and LPD understandably took some time off to go spend some time with him in the hospital before he passed away. Well, CEO did not like this very much at all, because CEO had already gone all around town and told everyone that the software we were developing would launch by a specific date. Instead of CEO being understanding of LPD's circumstances, he talked shit about him to everyone he came into contact with, including me. He took LPD's unavailability as some sort of treason and blamed the entire post-ponement of the launch date on him. In all reality, he should have kept our project under wraps and not announced a definitive launch date OR he should have just made an announcement that the launch date would be later because of one of the developer's personal family circumstances. He really showed an extremely greedy and dark side of his personality.
Well, this really rubbed me the wrong way, and I got very serious about leaving said company. I stayed around until we got the site launched (a couple months late) and then I accepted my current job at U.Va. When I told the CEO that I was leaving, he got really weird and tried to get me to agree to sign a contract that would give me rights to use the software on my site, and in return, I would lose ALL rights and ownership of the code I had written for them. That means I would not be able to license or sell the code to anyone else. The contract did not say anything about the profit sharing carrot that the CEO dangled in front of me during development. I talked to the LPD and apparently the CEO had asked him to sign a similar contract.
I did some more research and found out that all of the complementary code that was written by the LPD was ALSO written by him under Independent Contractor terms, and therefore owned by him. The realization dawned upon both of us, that LPD and I jointly owned all the rights to the software that CEO was either knowingly or unknowingly trying to trick us into signing over our rights so he could sell it without living up to his end of the bargain. When confronted, CEO claimed that he knew nothing about Independent Contractor rights, or about Intellectual Property ownership. I found this quite hard to believe since he has in his employment one of the country's highest profile digital media lawyers AND it would not make sense that he would try to get us to sign a contract handing over our rights unless he knew that they were our rights to sign over in the first place. SNEAKY AND UNDERHANDED!
I told him there was no deal and that I am going to make all my code open source. That way, he will have the right to sell and license the code (This means I am not going back on my word), but he will not have the exclusive rights to the code nor will he be able to take those rights away from me or anyone else.
Since I did not write the code for the PHP side of the software, I need the LPD to help me install it on my website so I can usre it. In exchange, LPD would like to use my media players with his code. This is CEO's worst nightmare, as he very much dislikes the idea of LPD being a competitor. TOO BAD!
CEO wrote me again this past weekend, trying to work out another deal with me. This time, he is proposing that he gives me a percentage of every license he makes for the software, and that I would have to get his written consent in order to license it with anyone else. He is really trying hardcore to keep me from letting LPD use the code and compete with him. He can forget it because there is no way I am signing over my leverage to help me get the software installed on my website. I am also so angry at him by this point that I do not want to do business with him ever again!!!
If he wanted his way, he should have hired us as employees from the beginning and not Independent Contractors! He did not pay a single dollar of employer taxes the entire year I worked for him, yet he wants the same rights as if he did.
He can forget it because I am not stupid and I refuse to let anyone take advantage of me, by principle!
A year and a half ago I was looking for freelance work, so I answered an ad on Craigslist looking for a PHP Developer. I knew a little bit of PHP and was looking to learn more. I met with the company's lead PHP developer for an interview. He liked my work, and was particularly interested in my Flash experience. He got the OK from the company's CEO to hire me for 20 hours a week at a rate of $20 an hour. It was a really low rate, but I was desperate for work so I took it. I did some Flash work for said company and they were really pleased. They eventually said that I could work 40 hours a week. I was still only getting paid $20 an hour, but it was consistently steady work and I loved being an Independent Contractor. I also genuinely liked the company's mission. The CEO evangelized a philosophy about us using technology to change the world and make it a better place. What was even better, it seemed like the projects I was creating were also applications that I would want to use on my own websites when I was finished. This was the main reason why I did not raise my rates. I was also making plenty of money to pay for everything so I did not complain.
Over some time, the CEO 's relationship started to break down with the lead PHP Developer. He started trying to put me in the middle of what seemed to be ego disputes between both of them. It was very negative and I started getting tired of it. I started feeling like I wanted to get out of this situation, but I did not want to leave them in the middle of the project. For one, I thought it was more ethical to finish a project before I left so they would not be left high and dry, and secondly, I wanted to finish the projects I was working on because I wanted to use them for my own site.
Over the course of this time, the CEO blatantly expressed that he wanted to sell the work I was doing for him as part of a greater software package that was the result of the work the lead PHP Developer and I had been doing. He told me that he would offer me profit sharing in the sales of the software. I was totally okay with that, and I expressed in return that I wanted to use the software package on my own website. Everything seemed cool, until things really broke down between the CEO and the lead PHP Developer (furthermore known as LPD). LPD's father became gravely ill with cancer and LPD understandably took some time off to go spend some time with him in the hospital before he passed away. Well, CEO did not like this very much at all, because CEO had already gone all around town and told everyone that the software we were developing would launch by a specific date. Instead of CEO being understanding of LPD's circumstances, he talked shit about him to everyone he came into contact with, including me. He took LPD's unavailability as some sort of treason and blamed the entire post-ponement of the launch date on him. In all reality, he should have kept our project under wraps and not announced a definitive launch date OR he should have just made an announcement that the launch date would be later because of one of the developer's personal family circumstances. He really showed an extremely greedy and dark side of his personality.
Well, this really rubbed me the wrong way, and I got very serious about leaving said company. I stayed around until we got the site launched (a couple months late) and then I accepted my current job at U.Va. When I told the CEO that I was leaving, he got really weird and tried to get me to agree to sign a contract that would give me rights to use the software on my site, and in return, I would lose ALL rights and ownership of the code I had written for them. That means I would not be able to license or sell the code to anyone else. The contract did not say anything about the profit sharing carrot that the CEO dangled in front of me during development. I talked to the LPD and apparently the CEO had asked him to sign a similar contract.
I did some more research and found out that all of the complementary code that was written by the LPD was ALSO written by him under Independent Contractor terms, and therefore owned by him. The realization dawned upon both of us, that LPD and I jointly owned all the rights to the software that CEO was either knowingly or unknowingly trying to trick us into signing over our rights so he could sell it without living up to his end of the bargain. When confronted, CEO claimed that he knew nothing about Independent Contractor rights, or about Intellectual Property ownership. I found this quite hard to believe since he has in his employment one of the country's highest profile digital media lawyers AND it would not make sense that he would try to get us to sign a contract handing over our rights unless he knew that they were our rights to sign over in the first place. SNEAKY AND UNDERHANDED!
I told him there was no deal and that I am going to make all my code open source. That way, he will have the right to sell and license the code (This means I am not going back on my word), but he will not have the exclusive rights to the code nor will he be able to take those rights away from me or anyone else.
Since I did not write the code for the PHP side of the software, I need the LPD to help me install it on my website so I can usre it. In exchange, LPD would like to use my media players with his code. This is CEO's worst nightmare, as he very much dislikes the idea of LPD being a competitor. TOO BAD!
CEO wrote me again this past weekend, trying to work out another deal with me. This time, he is proposing that he gives me a percentage of every license he makes for the software, and that I would have to get his written consent in order to license it with anyone else. He is really trying hardcore to keep me from letting LPD use the code and compete with him. He can forget it because there is no way I am signing over my leverage to help me get the software installed on my website. I am also so angry at him by this point that I do not want to do business with him ever again!!!
If he wanted his way, he should have hired us as employees from the beginning and not Independent Contractors! He did not pay a single dollar of employer taxes the entire year I worked for him, yet he wants the same rights as if he did.
He can forget it because I am not stupid and I refuse to let anyone take advantage of me, by principle!
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posted by Starrie at
2:28 PM
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