Are American high tech workers obsolete?

[Jerry Feldman]

I think you are right on here. But, many times economics dictates. 

I don't want to get into an intellectual property discussion, but when you 
work for a company, anything you develop (at least on company time or on 
company property) belongs to the company, not you. The more sticky issue is 
anything you might develop outside the company. Most colleges have very 
strict rules on this for their faculty and reasearchers. 

I've been a consultant/contractor for about 15 years. It is very clear that 
I may have other clients. However as an employee, my primary company may 
(legitimately) have a say on any projects I may have outside the company. 
For one, the company's intellectual property itself is a very valuable 
asset. It stands to reason that they don't want me to use my knowledge in 
another company that could be in competition. 

A few years ago, when I worked for HP as an onsite consultant at Raytheon, 
I also had a part time contract at Polaroid. Most of the Polaroid stuff was 
done at home on my Alpha Linux system. 
On 13 Aug 2002 at 16:35, Paul Iadonisi wrote:
> 
>   Absolutely!  I have often said that the absolute most valuable asset
> any company has (particularly in tech companies) is an asset it doesn't
> own -- its people.  
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Associate Director
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9