Does my employer own the maintainership and github stars of my open source project?

Question

I created and have been maintaining an open source project on github.com as part of my work for my employer. The project was created during the employment. My employer allows me to open source it on Github.com.

There forms a community - I created a mailing list and the numbers of people are growing. People like it and star it on the official github repo, which is under my username. Most of the links on Internet points to that repo. My employer knows it's under my username. Someone in the organization asked for transferring it to the company's account. But since it would break many links at that time, it was decided not to transfer it.

My question is: If I quit the job, do I still own the maintainership of the project? Do I have to transfer the repo to employer's account on Github.com? I think making a clone repo under employer's account is OK, because the stars will be transferred along with the repo and I think I own those "stars".

(Github stars are similar to "Likes" on Facebook)

Thanks

Answer 1

Reversing the first two sentences of your question makes it very clear your employer owns the project:

[An open source] project was created during [my] employment. I created and have been maintaining [the] project on github.com as part of my work for my employer. My employer allows me to open source it on Github.com.

There may have been an initial failure on the part of the company around defining the governance of the project, but the main repository is theirs. You were asked to start a project during your job, for their benefit and they allowed it to be open-sourced.

Consider if it was never made public. You employer asked you to make a project and write some code to help the business - they clearly own the code.

You can fork it and make your own after you leave, but this seems like a very clear case case that they own it.

Regarding legalities, it depends on where you are, but worst case they could lawyer up and demand your Github account so they can maintain it. They even could make a case that you weren't diligent or acting in your employers interest, by not making an "organisation" on GitHub to control the code and instead managing it under your own private account, despite it being work for them.

Best case you could transfer ownership of the repository and remain a part of the community.

Answer 2

Probably the number one answer is, the most definitive guidance on who owns what when, where and how is what your employment contract says. Everything else is speculation and while they are good guesses as to what the default position would be, a bulletproof answer requires inspection of your contract of employment. That said, going by what's usual practice... the answer is that, to put it in facebookesque terms, it's complicated.

First, most people here are entirely correct pointing out that the default position in most contracts of employment is transfer of certain rights to your work. By certain rights, I of course imply that some rights are not transferred. Let us consider an example.

Alice works for Bob Corp. She develops Blodget, a ground-breaking solution for a difficult cryptographic problem, while at work. Implemented as a software, it would net the company millions. Alice then leaves Bob Corp.

Now, Bob Corp would, under the standard transfer of rights clause, be entitled to economically exploit the invention -- there's no doubt about that. However, given that they let you open-source it, it's unlikely there'll be much of that going on.

Moral rights are another thing. Traditionally, artists, writers, performers &c. have certain unassignable moral rights -- these are basically 1) to be known as the author of the work, 2) to 'defend the work' (the right to argue with folks who think your product sucks). How far these are valid in the realm of tech has been a very contested territory, with some even calling moral rights for inventions an oxymoron. Some employers, for this reason limit their claims to economic rights.

In your current situation, what might well be best is to come to an agreement with your employer, such as them getting the right to be credited as your employer during development in return for you regaining control of the project. Agreements are always better than suing it out! Make sure, however, to enter into a properly witnessed, legally binding agreement. And, of course, to read your contract of employment properly (even if it's just for this one point).

Answer 3

I believe there are actually 2 questions here

1) Who owns the "Administrative Rights" to the repo (i.e. to choose a maintainer, which patches are folded in, etc)

2) Who own the code once its written.

Your company clearly owns #1, even if it is under your name. Depending on what Software License was used, they likely do not control the code (#2) in the repository. Most Open Source licenses explicitly grant any user the right to use and change to software as they see fit. Many also require that any changes be made available. Once a copy of the code has been legally released under an OSS license, it all the code is now bound by the terms of that license.

If your concerned about what happens when you leave, almost all OSS licenses give anyone the right to branch/fork code and continue working.