Re: Non-Compete Challenges for Community Work

Granted it was from another era but when I worked at Microsoft 2001-2003 my
noncompete did include requiring permission for open source contributions.

Generally speaking it may still be the case for some proprietary software
houses out of fears of IP loss.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers

Efficito: Hosted Accounting and ERP. Robust and Flexible. No vendor
lock-in.
http://www.efficito.com/learn_more

On Thu, Jan 1, 2026, 2:17 AM Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 04:59:33PM +0000, Dave Page wrote:
> > On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 at 16:57, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM Dave Page <dpage(at)pgadmin(dot)org> wrote:
> > > I don't think she's wrong - I just think the issue is much smaller
> than
> > suggested and that there are likely better places to spend time,
> effort,
> > and money at the moment (such as, I believe, the average age of our
> > contributors being on the rise). More and more jurisdictions seem to
> be
> > banning non-competes (or regularly ruling against them) for
> employees, so
> > it seems to me that the problem is slowly going away anyway.
> >
> > It's all a bit related, though. Older, more established contributors
> > are more likely to have leverage that they can use to preserve their
> > employment options, or the resources to get through a period of
> > unemployment or under-employment. Younger or less well-established
> > contributors are more likely to get pushed out of the community by an
> > adverse event (such as an employer or ex-employer with a good
> lawyer).
> >
> > True, that could definitely be a factor.
>
> I thought about this for a while. I think there are several factors:
>
> * Many people have companies based in jurisdictions that don't enforce
> non-competes.
>
> * Many people have not read their employment contracts and will not
> find out about non-compete restrictions until they leave their
> employer.
>
> * Because broad non-compete restrictions are often unenforceable, newer
> non-compete restrictions are more limited, which makes them less of a
> problem.
>
> I don't know if things are improving and we can ignore the issue, or if
> there is some action that can be taken. Ideas are:
>
> * New employees should read employment contracts and ideally have them
> reviewed by an employment lawyer. It might be difficult, but not
> being able to find a suitable job for a year is clearly worse.
>
> * Somehow incentivize companies to limit their non-compete restrictions
> to be more limited, and hopefully not block community involvement.
>
> --
> Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
> EDB https://enterprisedb.com
>
> Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.
>
>
>