[ILUG] GPL and non-disclosure agreements

[John N S Gill]

I think this came up while I was talking to some one at the e-xpo 
thing the other week.  

My company has just come out with one of these company policy things 
which includes some nasty stuff about ownership of ideas etc which 
"are applicable to the company's business".   

We're still arguing over the wording, but one particular issue is how 
to accommodate the company's use of Linux.   The company runs several 
key systems on Linux machines.  I develop applications for those 
systems and also make some contributions to Linux packages.  Under 
the current wording things just won't work.

It is clearly in this company's interest to contribute to Linux 
development.  Further, I would argue that since the company benefits 
significantly from Linux it has an obligation to make some 
contribution.

Anyway, to get to the point.  Has anyone out there some wording that 
they have added to one of these agreements specifically to accomodate 
Linux?  I'd be very grateful for any examples out there.

Also, can anyone think of a good analogy to the contributing to open 
source software ie another example where a company in effect gives 
away its expertise?