Really? I’m surprised. I can understand that software development contracts may say that things are work for hire, but certain conditions have to be met before something is legally considered work for hire in the US (essentially, the employer has to be able to substantially control and direct the employer, and for the most part subcontracting won’t cut it), while in other countries work for hire is even more restrictive. If I were an employer drawing up a contract I’d say that everything is work for hire but still require an assignment of copyright as well. I can see how an army of Sun programmers working on Java would be considered doing work for hire, but it wasn’t my impression that most OSS was created under that model.
