A co-worker is working on a website for a business he is starting.
He is doing this while he is on the clock for another company, using
the company's computer and Internet access.
Who owns the website? Who owns the business, since it was created
using company time and resources? Can he be prosecuted for theft of
company
resources? What recourse does his employer have for recovering
damages?

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Request for Question Clarification by joey-ga on 15 Jan 2005 19:15 PST

I have a few questions first:

1. In what state is the employee and employer located?
2. In what state is the employer incorporated? (less important but
potentially useful)
3. Did the coworker sign any kind of agreement regarding use of
company resources, intellectual property while employed, or any other
employment agreement that may include issues like this?
4. How "accepted" was it for employees to do non-job-related work
while on the clock?  Was it generally known by management that this
occurs, but has been sort of ignored for morale, etc. reasons?

Thanks.

--Joey

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Clarification of Question by macdk-ga on 16 Jan 2005 00:37 PST

1) Employee and employer are both located in Colorado
2) Employer is incorporated in Colorado
3) I am unaware of any such agreement, but I will check
4) This behavior is not at all acceptable. Management is not aware
this is happening, and I am certain it is grounds for termination

He spends the majority of his day surfing the Internet, and conducting
personal business (i.e. paying bills, shopping for stereo equipment,
etc.)
I've set up a video camera to document his actions - he averages about
1-2 hours of actual work during an 8-hour shift.

Under what authoritry are you recording his actions?  This can get YOU in trouble.

Yes, nelson, thanks for pointing that out. I realize that by filming
this person without management's knowledge leaves me wide open, but
sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
His manager has received several complaints about him in the past, and
nothing has been done.
Without some sort of concrete evidence, it's his word against mine.
Trust me, if you worked next to this guy day after day, you'd get
pretty fed up with him too. If you have any suggestions on a better
way to handle the situation, I'd be open to them. Thanks!

Your company would MUCH rather you didn't videotape the guy. That can
get THEM into legal trouble as well. They have a legal responsibility
to ensure a certain sort of work environment. His rights have been
violated and, if he sues, he's going to sue the deeper pockets--the
company.

We had a rash of thieving in my office. A co-worker set up a webcam
triggered by motion, and caught one of the cleaning crew--a scab
actually, the usual cleaning crew were on strike--stealing money. They
guy taping it got a reprimand. They didn't (and couldn't) go after the
cleaning guy.

Let me also add, taping one's co-workers or ratting them out is often
a bad way to make friends in an office. Your co-worker and your boss
probably checks their Yahoo mail from time to time, or an eBay item.
They aren't going to appreciate having your around to check on them.

Now that you've been videotaping him, your best option is probably to
remove the camera, shut up and never say anything or do anything
again. If you hadn't done that, your best course of action would be to
go to your boss and tell them what you know. If the guy is using the
web all day for personal business, the company can easily find out.
The company's web server stores every request made.

The company may feel that although the guy's been slacking off, there
is some non-termination way of handling it, like giving him more work,
moving his office so his work can be viewed by his manager, etc.
Sometimes companies prefer making someone's life miserable until they
quit. Firing someone can trigger a lawsuit--particularly when illegal
taping is involved.

Your company is NEVER going to try to grab ownership of the guys site,
whatever the legality of it. That's a nightmare! They are going to
fire the guy.

lectiodifficilior - 
Thank you, also, for your input.
The more I think about it, the less I like what I've been doing. I've
always been a work-first kind of guy, and I've never really cared for
people who have a something-for-nothing attitude. In the past, I've
just concentrated on doing the best I could, and not letting the
leeches and slackers get to me.
This guy just irritates me more than most because of his blatancy.
There are three of us in an open common area, about 8' X 8'. Everybody
that comes into our area for assistance can see what we're all doing.
He doesn't even bother to Alt-Tab to bring a work application to the
forefront. He just ignores them. Most of these people come to me for
assistance, because they know I'll do my best to help them out.
Lately, I've been getting the feeling that our boss knows this guy
isn't carrying his share of the load.

Maybe it's time for me to just concentrate on my work and let things play out. 
Maybe it's time to turn up the heat in other ways i.e. busting my butt
even more and just crushing him.
Maybe I can just have him kidnapped and shipped to Siberia.

I guess option 3 is out. Too bad