What does "intellectual property" mean to me in my daily life? Like everyone else I meet on a daily basis, I'm faced with certain restrictions about what I can and can't do with other people's "intellectual property", and sometimes this poses a nuisance or inconvenience to me. But intellectual property rights impact me in a much more significant way, and in a way not shared by everyman, for I confess that I am that most lowly of beings, The Intellectual Slave. I am not allowed any intellectual property of my own: my master assumes all rights over all that I create.

Clearly I'm engaging in hyperbole here: I'm paid reasonably well for my work; I'm not indentured and I could leave if I wanted to; I'm certainly not a slave in the real sense suffered by many poor unfortunates, and I wouldn't wish to belittle their plight. But the point remains: for all of my status as a free man working in a democratic country, my employer treats me as a slave so far as intellectual property is concerned. And, so far as I can tell, they see this arrangement not only as standard industry practice, but eminently fair to boot. Let me give you some of the details, then judge for yourself.

In my part of the world, Copyright law assigns the rights in any work of intellectual property, created by an employee in the normal course of employment, to the employer. That much seems at least potentially justifiable, since the employee is being paid for his work. My employer, however, demands considerably more than just the work I am paid for. The conditions of my work agreement dictate that all rights of intellectual property, in any work "relating to computers, communications, or the Internet" which I produce whilst acting in any capacity during the period I am employed, will be assigned exclusively to my employer. Copyright law allows me to assign my rights to another party in this manner, and my employer demands I do so: it's a standard clause in the work agreement.

This means, and my employer has confirmed this interpretation, that if I produce a computer program at home on my own computer and in my own time, my employer assumes ownership of the associated intellectual property rights. This is regardless of whether it bears any similarity to the kinds of computer programs they pay me to write: I have assigned to them all rights in all works relating to computers (etc) that I produce whilst on their payroll. So until the day my service with this present employer ends, I will not be able to produce any computer-related document or program which I can indisputably call my own. Indeed, I technically can't even contribute to free software projects (at home, in my own time, on my own computer) without the permission of my employer. This is intentional: they really don't want me to have any capacity as a free agent, lest I do something contrary to their interests in my own time.

Perhaps you can still find some understanding in your heart for this company. They are only motivated by their need to protect themselves, they say. Would it be fair, for example, if I had a great idea whilst I was employed there, then went off and made a fortune on my own with it? After all, it may well have been the work experience my employer gave me that allowed me to have the idea in the first place. Look at it the other way, I say. Is it fair that I should give over good ideas to this company at no extra charge? If I have a good idea which they then patent, I'm guaranteed nothing in return. If their scenario is unfair, then so is mine. Clearly they haven't aimed for fairness, so much as a situation in which they call all the shots.

And, to put the icing on the cake, how fair is it that they make such broad claims on my IP rights when I'm currently working for them on a casual basis? Yes folks, for the sake of about twenty-eight hours a month of paid work, they assume all rights to all works of intellectual property (relating to computers, communications and the Internet) that I produce at any time.

I don't want to seem bitter about it, and I don't hate my job or my employer, but the relentless, opportunistic, overbroad way in which they demand all IP rights from their employees is enough to make one a tad cynical about it all. Like most of the technical workers there, I've simply resolved to leave the job if ever I decide that I'm going to do something creative outside of work. I don't think the people who framed the employment contract quite understood the detrimental impact it could have in that sense. How motivating is an agreement which effectively says, "if you have any good ideas, we reserve the right to exploit them and guarantee you nothing in return?" The obvious way to avoid exploitation in that regime is, after all, to not bother with having any good ideas.

For me, the time to leave is almost here. The whole reason that I'm working casual hours instead of full time is because I've returned to full time study, undertaking an honours year for my computer science degree. If the university and my employer want to quibble over IP rights in any of my minor assignments then I don't really care, but I'm not willing to risk it on my major project. Nearly half the course is project work, and unless my employer can offer me some slack on the IP front, I'm going to resign before I type the first sentence of my thesis or hack out my first project-related line of code. I'm paying for my own education, and I'm not willing to risk "IP ownership issues" in my major project.

Will I have to resign? Will intellectual property rights impact my daily life in that way? Maybe. My boss says that he's trying to get the appropriate signatures so that I don't have to resign, but I'm sure that the directors of this gargantuan company have larger fish to fry than me and my petty concerns. I expect that I will leave in the end, and the whole incident will not even register as a blip on the corporate radar. On the other hand, they were so good as to renegotiate my work hours and remuneration, such that I was happy to continue my work there to the extent my study pattern allows it. They understand that university work will have to take priority, and this is not an issue for them. It's odd — or maybe telling — that the IP rights issue has been so hard to resolve, relative to these other details. All I'm asking is that they let me retain some rights to university-related work.

Time and time again I hear arguments in favour of copyright laws based on their alleged provision of fair reward for authors. From my perspective as a frequent producer of copyrightable works, it doesn't quite work like that all the time. Indeed, the laws which ostensibly exist to reward people like me are being used to restrict me from using my professional skills outside of my job. I believe I'd be better off if none of my work was copyrightable, since then my employer would not be able to demand I hand over my rights and use them as a means to restrict me. Granted, I wouldn't be able to restrict others in the use of my work either, but at least I'd be free to create works, if and when I felt like it, without fear of ownership disputes. As it is, if I want some freedom, I don't seem to have much recourse other than to update my résumé.

Available for hire: one nerd, no longer willing to surrender all his rights.