Hi A few thoughts..... You are in a difficult position and the approach will depend your company and their ethics. At the worst you are screwed. They may offer you nothing. At this stage you may face a choice of legal battle or to walk away. To win a legal battle you would need to prove ownership of something copyright and their breech of it. Although they may rewrite in asp the database structure and user interface may be yours, and you may be able to prove it. Do you have the app on a third party server - datestamped files may prove that you created your work before them. However proving the case is likely to be difficult and expensive and might cost you your job - it stinks but it may not be worth it. If they are a little fairer you might try making a business case. It sounds as if you are up against closed minds, but ......... php is secure, unlike IIS which is a basket case where security is concerned - challenge the IT dept to cite specifics. php runs in conjunction with the webserver, so this needs qualifying anyway. MySql is used by NASA, Yahoo and an increasing range of Blue Chip companies (see www.mysql.com). It does have some limitations, so you need to consider whether these are relevant to your company. the business case is...... they have a ready made app which will do the job. If they ask the 3rd party company to rewrite it will cost a lot, and you may also have M$ licensing costs to pay. They will also have development time, during which the current chaos will persist. You can also try reminding them that you have put many hours into this project and showing it to them gives them no rights over it at all. If they are going to build an app that tracks warranty info then let them design it. But if they take your workflow, table design and screen designs then they are pirating your work, just like the guy who takes a camcorder into the latest film and sells the result. There is another side to the augment, though. If your company are an M$ shop then supporting other technologies can be problematic - you say yourself that they are point and click people. If you are the only person who knows php/MySql then they are vulnerable - if you leave or are off sick they may have a critical app without support. Rewriting in asp would answer this, but (I am assuming that you are not working in IT now ) they may not want to trust an unknown with a business critical app. This is a fairly brutal assessment, which may have you screaming that you know exactly what you are doing, but they may see you as a happy amateur. If it were my company I would see it as a sign of initiative and look to build on the skills of someone who obviously cares about the state of the company and has a talent for problem solving. In the real world you can hit politics, ignorance and greedy b****s. I met a similar situation some years ago, and never reached any real conclusion, so I would suggest aiming for an amicable solution or leave it. If you are aiming for IT you might consider looking for a company that will give you a break, and use the app as part of your CV. In my experience a finished project speaks louder than letters after your name, particularly where open source technologies are used. HTH Peter > -----Original Message----- > From: Vincent Jordan [mailto:vjordan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Sent: 10 August 2004 00:03 > To: php-db@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Intellectual property rights > > > This is a bit off topic however it may be something people here have or > will have the unpleasant opportunity to deal with. The company I work > for has been having a problem tracking our customers warranty > information and have used paper for items sent in for repair. I on my > own time had created a web based application in php that would make both > issues paperless, and in my own opinion getter overall. Once complete I > informed my supervisor of the application and asked if It could be shown > to the vice president for review, with the condition that this is my > application and I own all source and design of the application. My > supervisor said he would need our IT department to look it over before > it went to the VP. At the request of the IT department head I downloaded > the files and sql dump of the database to the company's server. The next > day I wad in the IT office talking with the director of IT and a 3rd > party company about the functions and design of the application. Because > they are all Microsoft weenies and cant admin a server unless they can > point and click their way to a fix they said php would not be an > acceptable language and mysql is not a proper database to run an > application on. I informed them I could rewrite this in asp.net and > place it on a mssql database. The IT director said they will be having > the 3rd party company just take what I have made, convert it to asp and > build off of it. > > I approached my supervisor about compensation for the work that was done > since they are using my design. I was told "you gave it to IT, there is > nothing I can do about it" I explained that this was given on the > condition that it would be shown to the VP and in hopes that I would > either gain a transfer to IT, be awarded a contract to provide the > solution and maintenance, or maintain my current position with a slight > raise and I will maintain and built onto the application. > > I went up the chain to my supervisors boss and explained to them what > had happened and that since they are using my design and altering it to > another language that I would like to be compensated for my work. I was > told that I did nothing but give them an idea and they were really doing > all the work since what I did was not good enough and their computers > could not understand what I wrote. > > The IT dept refuses to run anything besides Win Servers using IIS. They > will not install PHP ( too many hacker problems they say). > > Did I just screw myself? Do I have any protection of my design? Can I do > anything? > > > Thanks, > > Vinny > -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
