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Comment by nopehnnope | Hacker News Reader

As an employee you have a duty of loyalty to your employer. I’m not sure about side projects generally, that is probably a Cyprus specific question. But I’d be shocked if it’s legal anywhere to release a product that competes with what you work on at your job. That’s just common sense. You would likely be violating not just your employment contract, but also trade secret, copyright, patents, etc. This is egregious enough behavior to even be criminally charged in many places.

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'As an employee you have a duty of loyalty to your employer'

Incredibly naive if someone does this. In a employee/employer relationship, I believe one should only be loyal to themselves. Again, have integrity and don't steal stuff, but be loyal to yourself.

This is a legal concept. You have to be loyal to your employer. You can’t intentionally undermine their business, charge them for hours you didn’t work, etc. It doesn’t mean that you have to go out of your way to advance their ends.

Which jurisdiction, can you cite precedent?

Quick Google shows this to be true in common law jurisdictions and every civil law jurisdiction I saw relevant information on.

Maybe the word "loyal" is confusing here. I'm not aware of any legal requirement for loyalty. There's a legal prohibition against fraud and such, though.

It is literally called a duty of loyalty in many legal systems. Something you could have easily confirmed with a quick Google search in half the time it took to write your comment.

> But I’d be shocked if it’s legal anywhere to release a product that competes with what you work on at your job.

That happens everyday. In fact most companies are found by people who already work in the industry. You simply should not steal trade secrets, copyright or patents.

Everything can be a trade secret. They’re not labeled with a stamp that says “Trade Secret”. If you’re working on a direct competitor to something you make at work, you are almost certainly stealing trade secrets without even realizing.

Hmm yes, in the same way they are loyal to employees despite being able to fire them with no notice? Terrible ideology.

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