Re: good news for my PhD

[Graham Percival]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 08:40:33AM -0700, Josh Parmenter wrote:
> if your advisor understands what you are contributing and is comfortable 
> with it, you probably don't need to worry about it.

Boss, not advisor.  I'm a staff member -- a very low-ranking one
at that -- not a student.  This also has huge implications for the
university's claims over intellectual property.

As I said, this won't be a concern at Glasgow.  Or once my
contract is over in 2 or 3 months.

> but, what is important to 
> know is that everything you do is copyrightable by you.

... unless I sign a contract which states that **any intellectual
property I create**[1] is owned by the university.  Which I did,
after a great deal of thought.  (actually, the first time I was
offered this job, I turned it down after reading the regulations
about intellectual property that were in the contract)

[1] unless I can prove it was done on my own time, without
university resources, in a field not related to my university
degrees, etc etc.


Now, some jurisdictions have laws that state that you cannot sign
away certain rights (such as an author's "moral rights").
European countries are generally fairly nice in this regard.  I
confess that I haven't looked at the exact laws in Singapore, but
I am willing to be that the university regulations on intellectual
property don't break the country's laws.  This means that by
default I do **not** own any intellectual property I create.

Believe me, I did my homework before accepting the contract (the
second time, a year after the first attempt at hiring me).  I'm
not overjoyed at this state of affairs, but I accepted them
willingly for this short period.

Cheers,
- Graham