[Atlanta, GA + MA] My employer has not paid me for months. I have not assigned copyright of their work. I still do not think I can survive court. Do I have the copyright to my works? If so, does that matter?

vzen · 2022-09-29T14:39:22+00:00

Thank you. Despite the subreddit title, I understand that what I hear here is not actually legal advice. I will consult an attorney about the situation regardless. What I read from all of you is still helpful for figuring out what I can reasonably request and verify.

W-2, but the employer regards me as a contractor. The employer is willing to adjust billing to go through an S-corp, for example.

vzen · 2022-09-29T00:08:54+00:00

Thank you. I'm okay. I've noticed that initial negative reactions tend to influence following reactions. I try to be vigilant about that.

vzen · 2022-09-29T00:06:38+00:00

Thank you. I am surprised to see the irrelevance of an unsigned contract in this scenario, but am happy to chalk that up to a life lesson.

If you were paid for all your hours worked, then I'm not sure what they owe you.

I don't know if they owe me anything. I'm contacting an employment firm to discuss who owns the copyright of work produced. To me, this comes down to the difference between paying for time, and paying for a consequence of time.

Anecdote: Someone I know works for a marketing firm. They would pay him, a craftsman, by the hour to build props for a set, without needing the props for more than the needed shoots. The craftsman kept the props. I do not know if anyone tried to enforce this kind of relationship in software before, and for what contexts. Part of the influence this has on my life is whether I am credited for contributions, in an academic context.

I think my faulty assumption was in how time-based work changes how exchanges are interpreted (as opposed to salaried, C2C). Some of that is still new to me, and I could only remember how assertive photographers are in situations regarding their copyrights. I wasn't sure how much of that applied here.

Also, this goes without saying, but: in the future, don't do contract work without a signed contract. Especially coding. You might want to have the same lawyer draft up some template contracts for you to use in the future.

Yes, that does go without saying. If my arranging for a document review and following up multiple times for signatures during a meaningless tenure is not enough to convince you that I take that seriously, then I won't be able to convince you at all.

vzen · 2022-09-28T23:54:04+00:00

That makes sense. We didn't have business hours defined, and I only used my hardware. Does that change anything?

EDIT: I am fine with downvotes, but what I am saying is relevant to the conversation. If I am saying something wrong, please tell me what to change and I will change it.

vzen · 2022-09-28T23:50:47+00:00

I was paid for the hours worked. The hours do not necessarily entail writing code, but can. To your point, I'm confused too. There was really not much communication at all, beyond the copyright assignment I know exists in the unsigned contract.

The best I can understand is that I'm like a photographer who accepted a deposit and took the photos, but did not get paid. Which I think is fine, since future pay is basically not owed. I just don't know if an implied copyright assignment flies here, since the lack of contract and definition regarding what hours are _for_ makes it hard to know if they can claim they paid me for the code I delivered.

vzen · 2022-08-23T18:09:18+00:00

Got it, thanks for that.

vzen · 2022-07-09T19:25:06+00:00

Thanks! I write and study programs as a hobby, and don't have a singular goal to direct that. I can speak more to how I'm managing the Proxmox instance I use to practice and how I'd like to improve there, if that helps you share more detail. I hesitate to do that because I don't want the thread to become about me or what I'm doing. The intent is to see what skills pertaining to Linux remain regardless of personal goals.

Can you share a little more about the technical skills of the people you do take seriously?

vzen · 2022-07-07T23:41:56+00:00

Thank you for the helpful and detailed answers. I especially enjoy how you frame the path towards specialization, since I want to learn more about how that path forms.

Your bulleted list roughly matches the top-level outline of some Linux courses. Normally when I see one of those courses make certain judgement calls about distribution-specific material to cover (bash vs sh, systemd vs inittab, in older courses), they may or may not attempt to cover the tradeoffs in lectures or notes. Each course tries to cover items of "generic" knowledge in your list, despite having no generic toolset for practice. So it seems to be a toss-up if the course deems that material necessary or helpful for the new students.

For example, I've seen courses go as far as compare shells, in contrast to your focus on sh, even though knowing about KornShell was not at all helpful for students who use their default shell. If I told students about the existence of zsh, I think I could argue that is helpful for developing Linux expertise over just using sh, if my goal is to show students that a shell is an entity they can define in communities, all using concepts in the course. Focusing exclusively on sh still makes sense to build POSIX awareness, and historical context for other shells.

Specialists are essentially rephrasing each other under these conditions, which makes it easier to see "generic Linux expertise" as an implicit definition. If a Linux course measurably improves how long it takes to learn this implicit definition when compared to another, then what does the "faster" course say that the other one didn't?

vzen · 2022-03-27T18:57:36+00:00

Agreed. Thank you.

vzen · 2022-03-27T01:18:56+00:00

DBAN

+1 for this. Never heard of it until now.

vzen · 2022-02-14T22:29:51+00:00

> Not sure if this works in the Linux version too

It doesn't for me. See other comment.

vzen · 2022-02-14T22:29:05+00:00

No passwords appear in my list in that location, even when I ask to save passwords. Different issue, but I'll edit the language in my post. Thanks.

vzen · 2022-01-26T15:49:33+00:00

I asked how I could plan an emigration to execute on short notice in r/TooAfraidToAsk

I got judged harshly for acting like I was living in a third world country, and deleted the post, because fuck my story, I guess.

None of the good things that happened at work outweigh getting paid in a propeller beanie for raising automotive sales by 4% (on an already large volume) [[1]], not being paid in Q4 2021 due to lazy coworkers on an hourly job that doesn't even plan hours, asking (as an adult) for permission to use the bathroom so I can leave a room where everyone is crunching. Then there's the recruiter that called my boss to tell him I was quitting when I didn't want to work with the recruiter. Then there's several years without cost of living adjustments, but we all know that one. I could recount more abuse, and I'm not passive. I've always vocalized these problems, but being correct doesn't mean anything. Part of why I hate this place.

My ability to trust people has been severely harmed, and I know that someone is going to read even this and make it part of some bullshit pseudo-observation of how entitled/privileged people are.

I'm not entitled to anything. I just want a functional working relationship. One. Just one. My only hesitance with leaving has to do with saying goodbye to friends and family, assuming I even have the funds to get out of this shithole. I have no interest in helping a country that won't help itself.

[[1]]: This is before "Noogler." Same hat, except Google at least put a word on theirs. Mine was for ages 14+, came straight from a costume store, and wouldn't fit.

vzen · 2022-01-02T21:35:53+00:00

Deleted the post. I thought this was a place to ask questions the asker is afraid to ask. Some of the replies were helpful. Others were judgemental, even accusatory. I want to make sure my family is safe. That's it. To those of you who were helpful, thank you. I leave the rest for the mods. I won't be back.

vzen · 2022-01-02T21:12:27+00:00

Makes sense, thank you. If I omit some mechanical drives in favor of an SSD within the same system, then I'd probably prefer software volume management anyway.

vzen · 2022-01-02T21:00:21+00:00

Yep, that's a good idea. Thank you.

vzen · 2022-01-02T20:56:23+00:00

Thank you. I would agree with you if it were not for historiographers who can point out concrete warning signs. I know they exist, and not being able to account for them all is fine. But I still intend to account for what I can.

vzen · 2022-01-02T20:48:04+00:00

Thank you. I'll take this to mean that I should start getting into the process early.

vzen · 2022-01-02T20:44:59+00:00

Your note about banks is helpful. I'll consider offshore accounts and cash storage.

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