[HN Gopher] Amazon Drops 'Draconian' Policy on Making Games Afte...
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       Amazon Drops 'Draconian' Policy on Making Games After Work Hours
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2021-08-14 16:20 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | rdiddly wrote:
       | Draconian isn't so much the word I would choose... more like
       | simply "illegal" and indefensible in court. Witness the speed
       | with which they removed the language. They obviously had some
       | real attorneys take a belated look at it, in parallel with the PR
       | review prompted by this kerfuffle.
        
         | colejohnson66 wrote:
         | It's actually fairly legal (in the US[a]). With salaried
         | employees, what constitutes "on the job" work and what doesn't
         | isn't as clear. With an hourly employee, once they clock out,
         | their thoughts are their own. Salaried employees are paid just
         | for working there; especially if you're "on call." And when
         | you're talking about a game studio, a game made on your own
         | time would be pretty easy for your employer claim from you.
         | 
         | NOTE: I do not agree with these clauses, and I wish they didn't
         | exist. But they are a thing and they are legal.
         | 
         | [a]: IANAL, and some states probably specifically prohibit
         | these clauses
        
         | makapuf wrote:
         | Not the way the founder of Stack Overflow seemed to see things:
         | 
         | -
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20110731170810/http://answers.on...
         | - related HN discussion:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2208056
        
       | pkdpic_y9k wrote:
       | Just to be clear this is referring to Amazon Game Studios
       | employees, not all Amazon devs. Interesting regardless tho.
        
         | flamefew wrote:
         | The change applies to all Amazon employees.
        
           | Sanguinaire wrote:
           | Employees outside the games division already had much slacker
           | rules about game development; I expect this change aligns
           | things for all AWS employees at the lower bar.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-14 23:02 UTC)