Programmer Musings

The IP Goose, revisited.

A couple of years ago, I wrote in The IP Goose about some effects that too strict an IP policy can have on developers. In the intervening two years, I've had some other insights that I believe are important.

First of all, I stand by my original essay. Companies should be able to protect the software they have hired people to write. They should have some protection against an individual taking the information they have learned to take business away from them. A carefully crafted IP agreement can do that.

In the previous essay, I also described how practice is needed to improve skills and increase knowledge. I still believe that development outside of work is needed to practice, learn new things, and keep unused skills from fading. Unfortunately, I've also come to believe that the effects of a draconian IP policy can be more damaging than I first thought.

Habit

One important part of practice is consistency. As long as you continue to practice anything, you tend to improve or, at least, maintain your skills. Obviously, if you stop practicing, the skills and knowledge begin to degrade. More importantly, you also start to lose the habit of practice. The longer you are not practicing, the more effort is needed to get back into the habit of practicing and the easier it is to backslide. This tends to make regaining the skill you are practicing even harder.

I'm sure many of you have seen this effect in different fields: martial arts, sports, music, cooking, etc.

Well, the time off from practice caused by a draconian IP agreement will have the same effect on your programming as an enforced absence from skiing or judo would have on your performance in those areas. Subtly, priorities have shifted. There's always something else that needs to be done. You haven't had time to practice for x months, what's another couple of days? It takes quite a while to overcome that inertia, and that whole time your skills continue to degrade.

Long Term Effects

I think that an overly strict IP agreement not only has a detrimental effect on our skills while you work under it, but also a long-term degradation in your ability to practice.

I worked for a while under a really strict IP agreement. Following the letter of the agreement meant that any software I touched would belong to the company. Working on Open Source projects was obviously out of the question. If I wanted to work on a project on my own, I had to contact the appropriate person in the company's legal department and obtain permission, in advance. If necessary, I had to get sign-off from my supervisor that the project was in no way related to my work with the company. Needless to say, quickie little projects to try out a new technology or technique were no longer worth the effort.

It has taken quite some time to regain the habit of working on projects on my own time. I was able to get back to the little stuff pretty quickly, but bigger project require a lot more effort to start and work on than they used to. Fortunately, I still enjoy writing software, so I have a strong incentive to keep working at it.