[ig1]

Probably not unless his contract was written in such a way. If for example you wrote a personal email using a company computer while at work, you would still own all the rights to it. Your work contract will specifically say what rights you assign to your employer and the specific works it covers.

[grabeh]

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/11

Legislation in the UK creates a presumption that unless otherwise stated, first ownership of copyright works created in the course of employment will vest in the employer. So it is up to the written contract to rebut the presumption.

[ig1]

It's worth noting "course of employment" is different from "time at work", as it's defined by the tasks you're hired to do. If the person in this article was in the UK his data-entry contract could well be drafted in such a way that writing a program for the purpose of automating his job would fall outside his specified work duties.

[grabeh]

Good point. It does depend on the terms of the contract, but "course of employment" is defined quite widely so if the contract was silent, there would be an arguable case to say the presumption kicked in as the work was done for the benefit of the business, during work hours, and at the company's premises (as far as I'm aware).

[tejaswiy]

Fascinating. I've never thought of this. What is the law in the US? If I e-mail a friend during work hours (or write this comment during lunch), does my company own the rights to this?

[Symmetry]

IANAL, but my understanding is:

If you were hired to do some work, the result is "work for hire" and the copyright resides in the company. If you write software, emails, etc unrelated to your job you would ordinarily retain copyright to those. Cases like the one in the story are rather ambiguous. That's employment agreements almost always elaborate on the topic, saying that, for instance, code you write on company computers or on company time belongs to the company.

[ig1]

No, assuming it's unrelated to your work you still own the rights to it. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire