This is simply illegal. I am surprised at how the HN community is acquiescing to this throwback claim and isn't challenging it with righteous indignation. It crosses numerous legal, ethical and historic boundaries and should deeply taint the IBM brand for anyone reading it.
This seems very much the case sadly ... a friend of mine is working as a software engineer at IBM (in Europe) and they indeed are not allowed to use their personal accounts to make open source contributions in their spare time. They would have to ask IBM legal to sign off on everything. Sad life.
This is simply illegal. I am surprised at how the HN community is acquiescing to this throwback claim and isn't challenging it with righteous indignation. It crosses numerous legal, ethical and historic boundaries and should deeply taint the IBM brand for anyone reading it.
This seems very much the case sadly ... a friend of mine is working as a software engineer at IBM (in Europe) and they indeed are not allowed to use their personal accounts to make open source contributions in their spare time. They would have to ask IBM legal to sign off on everything. Sad life.