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Comment by _ibu9 | Hacker News Reader

I feel bad for people with this bootlicker mindset...

If I get sued for violating the contract well that sucks for me but I'm certainly not going to feel bad for it.

Words of a man with not much to lose. Once your net worth is in multiple millions, the calculation will change quite a bit. You will most definitely not want to lose your life's savings on a moral crusade.

Yeah of course, I'm not saying the contract wouldn't have an influence on my actions, just that I don't (and you shouldn't) feel a moral/ethical obligation to follow it.

And that's exactly what those contracts are aiming for: not to control your mind, but to establish a deterrent from much more nefarious shenanigans, if thoughts of such shenanigans arise. Some of the top Silicon Valley companies (dating all the way back to the 70's) would simply not exist if those contracts were followed to the letter.

Bootlicker? If you sign a contract, you are saying you're alright with it.

You're saying you're happy to reneg on contractual terms. Good luck in life but those of us who stand by our word want nothing to do with you.

> If you sign a contract, you are saying you're alright with it.

No, you are saying you don't want to be unemployed and starve on the streets.

> Good luck in life but those of us who stand by our word want nothing to do with you.

Standing by your word to other human beings is of course a commendable quality, standing by your word to corporations, not so much.

No one in our industry will "starve on the streets" in the foreseeable future. They may have to take a smaller paycheck with a contract that doesn't have the clauses they don't like, but let's not engage in histrionics here. And I agree with the parent, your choice of language is inappropriate and tiresome. You're posting to a forum read by literally thousands of people you're calling "bootlickers". Not smart.

As I said, signing such a contract doesn't make you a bootlicker. (I have signed such a contract myself.) But I can't for the life of me understand why people are feeling bad for working on side projects and not wanting to have the rights signed over to their corporate overlords. That's just a depressing ethical framework to live your life by. (Obviously I'm not talking about the Lewandowski espionage type case.)

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