Apple(?) stripped employee of Netflix Fanatic shareware app

[LoopHoles]

so, according to Think Secret, an Apple started a legal dispute with an employee developed Netflix Fanatic, a $10 shareware app for managing your netflix rental queue. now the app is no longer available and apple is claiming ownership of it and the source code.

Think Secret article: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/netflixfanatic.html

my questions:
why would apple do this? just because they can, steve ?

what are they going to do with the idea and the source code?

maybe netflix threatened to sue apple, though i don't see why they would, since this app just makes the user's experience better.

think secret suggests that apple will integrate the tech into sherlock. my hunch is that, if they don't just lock it up and forget about it, they'll make a deal with netflix to bundle the app with .mac subs and give a one month free gift certificate upon subscription to or renewal of .mac. that's still far off, though.

what is apple up to?

[Sun Baked]

Further, sources told Think Secret that Apple has claimed ownership over the application's name and source code. At the time we spoke with our source, the developer had not yet handed the source code over to Apple, but that may well have changed since that time.

Not a lot of people read their employment contract, which sometimes gives their employer's control and/or ownership of employees intellectual property developed during their employment.

No telling why Apple may have stepped up to take control of this Shareware Application, since they seem to have had a strong history of employees spinning off into competing companies. And there's no telling what the real timeline of those companies was.

[caveman_uk]

I once asked my employer about this and they said that if I worked on something in my own time that was in the same line as business as their's they would still consider it their's. If on the other hand it was in a different field then they wouldn't have a problem.

It's probably in the employment contract small print - 'intellectual endeavours' and all that...

[sketchy]

If he/she was doing i on Apple's clock -- they have the right to do it. especially if they have anything related to it in development.

[Flowbee]

It's a handy little program. I'm guessing it might end up as a Sherlock channel (which would be a pretty nice deal for Netflix.)

[LoopHoles]

apple most likely has the right to claim the software and the developer probably did not take legal care to make sure this was outside his contract with apple. that's not what i'm arguing. rather, what's next? what will they do with this code (if anything)?

the author of PodWorks was recently hired by apple and has apparently admitted to quitting development of the app, but it's still for sale and available for dl at his site.