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If the author states like this, I would think that he's going to pay me salary based on 24*7 rather than just 40 hours per week.

That is what being a salaried employee means - the normal hours are stipulated in the contract but also some clause like "and anything else that may be required".

my twitching due to self-restraint from posting marxist critiques of capitalism is ramping up again.

I was trying to explain to creative people that "intellectual property" is basically enclosure of 20th century, but they had a hard time to grasp the analogy. In both cases, it's means to create an artificial scarcity where one didn't exist before. So they are bound to repeat the same mistakes that workers did before marxism.

What is the alternative though? Through the article Joel gave reasons as to why those two limits can't be placed (even if the company was nice and wanted to)

I can think of a few:

- Have the employee agree to grant a royalty-free license to all relevant inventions made in the appropriate time period

- Have the employee forfeit all inventions in the event they initiate litigation

- Or better, sign a mutual patent disarmament clause (probably my favorite option)

Going back to the core of the issue though, I would not trust investors who insist on appropriating the rights to any and all inventions they can. The article tries to frame this as a legal protection strategy, but they don't need ownership to do this. The only reason they insist on it is to try and pressure the founders into squeezing maximum value from employees while giving back as little as they can in return. Unfortunately this behavior is quite widespread.

Could you elaborate on your last point, a patent disarmament clause?

If there's precedent that would be great!

> The evident conclusion is that there are none. You are selling all of your intellectual output.

The conclusion is that we either reject this kind of slavery, or at least start charging the extra hours.

> A situation where every idea you come up with, everything you think, every last shred of creativity is owned by someone else is one of the most profoundly dystopian things I can imagine.

That's rather overdramatic. Several centuries ago, every idea you come up with, everything you think, you could probably keep as your own because no one was interested and there was no way you could sell them and make living, even if you really wanted to, which you probably did not, because such a lifestyle was out of most people's reach.

"What are you saying you've been up to all this morning, thinking? Cut out the laziness and go feed the cows, or there will be no lunch for you!"

We are currently living in the current age, not several centuries ago.

Should one accept terrible medical care, as such care would be considered revolutionary a few centuries ago?

Additionally, there were people back then whose intellectual output was their own and were able to do things with that output.

Joel also wrote that as a contractor you own all the copyright by default, and it is your free will to sell it. That is your choice to sign up for contract and let the company take over. If you do not want that, simply do your buisness on your own and don't look for work for someone else.

For downwvoters, I am from Poland I live in Netherlands. I am all in for personal freedom. I cry when freedom is taken away from people. It is about beeing more educated, knowing your options. Not just signing up with big corp because you will get more money. It is about you can loose some of your money because you choose freedom.

Please upvote it. Don't be like a child who wants to have cookie and eat cookie, it is You loose some money in return you get freedom. Those who want money can get all they want, but you loose something more valuable. You can't have all the money and all the freedom...

That is a good point, people are inventing dystopian futures, where we had really dystopian past. Where people actually belonged to someone, were only fed for their work.

Where now in first world you can quit your job and try to sell your inventions or every last shred of creativity to one that offers more. It is also that if you do not like someone you do not have to sell your ideas to him, you can sell those ideas to someone you like cheaper.

Joel also wrote (I hope parent poster read the article) that as a contractor you own all the copyright by default, and it is your free will to sell it.