[SlashRaid]

This past Monday I read about Finlay Dobbie, a 15 year old Darwin Committer, who contributed code and such to Darwin, Apple's Mac OS X core. Finaly has had his Apple Developers Connection disabled by the company sighting that he isn't 18 years old and there for not bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Legally Apple had every right to do this. Really if Dobbie wanted to, he could go back on his agreement and demand any code he has added to the project be removed or claim exclusive rights to it.

On the other hand, the way Apple has handled it is turning out to be a huge PR mistake. What are they saying to young customers? Surely a company such as Apple could have made it possible for a minor to take part.

Check out the links for full detail:

• Wired News:Apple Ousts Coder for Being Young
  
• Findlay Dobbie:Findlay Dobbie Homepage - Articles
  
• Slashdot:Apple Cuts Off Under-18 Darwin Developer
  
• Darwin Info:Found: PPP Hang

[SlashRaid]

With so many younger members visiting the site, I'm going to bump this to the front page.

*bump*

[The Neoracle]

You know, apple is a huge corp that really has to watch it's ass, I'm sure they had very legit reasons for doing this. Why doesn't this kid just get his parents to sign for him?  Then it would be legal and all parties would be happy.  I doubt apple is doing it to be mean. That's usually not their style.

[SlashRaid]

I don't think they are doing it to be mean either, it's just the handling of the whole thing. He wasn't even given any options, just a see ya later.... Maybe when your older. Sad thing for such a great company.

I'm sure when they shut him off, the had no idea Slashdot and Wired would be running it. It could have been done better, and there are ways arround their legal concerns with the issue. Some lower level manager made a call with out thinking it through. Yeah they could of gotten burned, but the kid seems to have a true foothold on the open source idea, and the trust it incures.

[skyhawk133]

This is understandable, but uncalled for. I once had to deal with all the crap about being under 18 and all that, never was a problem for the 20 or so large corporations I did business and development work for. Why apple!?

Seems they may have just shot themselves in the foot, I remember back in the day where Apple gave schools free computers to promote education, seems this isn't to... promotional :none:

[supersloth]

Quote

Quote: from skyhawk133 on 11:35 am on Mar. 27, 2002
I remember back in the day where Apple gave schools free computers to promote education, seems this isn't to... promotional :none:

yup, i remember those days too, thats how i learned about computers. kinda sad to see this happen. i would really demand something outta them for retribution. maybe a contract saying he can be re-instated as of his 18th birthday, pretty sucky stuff.

[SlashRaid]

I would like to see them offer some type of solution/fix... At least clear the mud of their face with an apology.

[BlueCube]

Ya, that's definatly a shot in the foot.  I don't understand why they would do that?  They could have just left it be, it's not like anyone was gonna sue them or something!

[SlashRaid]

It's not that Apple would be sued. The problem was with the kids commits, if he added something of true value in the code, he could later claim that he didn't know what he was doing because he was a minor and then ask for some ungodly amount of money or the removal of his code.

Apple would have to find away they could guarantee that wouldn't happen and have it legally binding even though he's 'under-age'.

[The Neoracle]

I can fully understand why they did it. Slashy just explained it better than I could.  It's a CYA situation and it's totally understandable. It's a bunch of people that have no idea how business works that are blowing this out of proportion.  I've delt alot with the state of colorado doing business for them and they were very sketchy when it came to paying me. They had to make me an employee so that I was covered and all work I did was already owned by them. It was a pain. Then I turned 18 and it wasn't anymore.

[SlashRaid]

There you go, make the kid an employee! Then all code automatically belongs to the company/project!

That could be a solution.

[supersloth]

true dat.

[The Neoracle]

I'm sure it's not quite THAT easy, but yeah, it could be a solution. Apple's pretty daft, they'll come up with something to make it right. They usually do.

[Vetritus03]

M$ would never have done this.  can you imagine what that would lead to?  just look at all the faults people right here say about M$ and their code... not to mention their market strategy.  if M$ did hire kids, Luna may have looked like Aqua.  wait a sec...  perhaps that wouldn't have been a bad thing...  quick, every one of you script kiddies out there rush over to M$.com and at least become a beta tester!

[SlashRaid]

Vet Lives!!!

Win95/98 was written by South American Preschoolers.

Such a solution would only be in princple.... Talent has no age.