NDAs just get in the way man, I want to be able to just leak all sorts of company secrets without any nagging from HR.
NDAs without a hard cutoff, maybe a year or two in the future, can get bent.
Especially for artists. Holy shit, do artists get screwed by NDAs. Some people’s portfolios are fucking sparse despite years of doing art five days a week for years and years. If the business just kills the project - tough shit, it’s a secret forever.
To the point we’re still seeing people hesitant to talk about failed games from thirty years ago, even though the company is dead, and the company that bought their corpse is also dead.
There’s a non-zero chance that NDAs could use to shield bad people and/or bad companies from criticism, but often they’re just used to stop spreading info to competitors, stop spoiling stuff, etc. Not crediting someone is usually scumbaggery, but in case of VTubers, they usually get doxxed within a week, especially big names and those that used to be big previously.
An even bigger issue IMHO are NCAs.
NCAs are “slavery but with more steps” territory. You can’t quit because we own your degree now.
I had a company give me an NDA that essentially said I couldn’t work anywhere on the east coast after I quit because the had clients all over and there was a radius around each where I wasn’t allowed to work (I was young and desperate for a job so I didn’t pay enough attention to what I had signed). After I got a new job the old place came knocking. The new company’s lawyer laughed the old company out of the room when they presented it.
We need more doctrine based on argumentum ad fuuuck offff.
NDAs more often protect strategic information than some big secret.
Stuff like when they will release something, pricing, etc. It really means nothing to 99% of the planet and will mean nothing in a month, but a competitor can use the information to make counter moves.
If a company is divulging critical information with a prospective candidate, thinking an NDA is going to help them, they have more problems than trying to fill a job role.
I used to work on US military computers for drones, I quit like four years ago and the NDA still applies, so it depends. Also some NDA’s have a shorter expiration date than others.
If I’m signing an NDA for a first-time founder I expect their idea will start off with “It’s like Facebook but for…”
Genuinely did once get hired to do some design work for “Facebook but for dogs”.
They paid me money and I got to put photos of my own dogs everywhere as placeholders and look at them all day so whatever.
Dogster.com already exists
Or failing that, take your pick of
- It’s like Uber but for…
- It’s crypto/blockchain, but applied to…
I feel conflicted on this one. On the one hand, most startups have absolutely shit ideas, no clue how to execute and will crumble into a pile of half delivered products. NDAs and non-competes are basically saying you promise not to tell anyone about the idea to “put ___ on the block chain”, or to not work for anyone working with “machine learning” for five years.
But also… It’s just asshole ragebait.
Gotta live the “ideas are cheap” stance when you know how much money some patents can be worth.
However, that implies that you have a patent and getting a patent costs between $5000 and $10,000 if you’re lucky and it’s a simple patent.
I generally agree unless the idea is actually something groundbreaking, which in 99.99% of cases, it isn’t, even remotely.
When it’s actually something groundbreaking, the person having the idea should have some protection to actually get rewarded for the idea.
I’ve been in companies where tradesecrets were stolen and it can seriously fuck a company.
The execution doesn’t matter when a third party can undercut your price by 90%+.
Honestly, I agree with this.
Companies pay me to work. If they want to control my speech, i.e. tell me what I can and can’t say when I’m OUT OF WORKING HOURS, then I want a part of the company.
