ethics in the industry?

[colinsmith]

Ok then, if you're working for an employer, is it ethical not to use your full range of knowledge for them? ;-)

[Chad Warner]

I wouldn't say that it's unethical, But it would have to do a lot more with how you feel about the employer. Having been an employee at a company where my boss was an a$$, I didn't share new tips or techniques that I learned. Now I own a company, and I would hope that my employees respect me enough and like working here that they will (and have) share info that I didn't know about.

[Ernest Burden III]

Ok then, if you're working for an employer, is it ethical not to use your full range of knowledge for them? ;-)

 

Curse you, Colin Smith! Now there's an ethical question for which I don't have a quick, all-too-easy answer.

[AJLynn]

At my last job I tried using everything I knew, coming up with new stuff and teaching my coworkers how to use it. Unfortunately the organization was so corporate that it was always getting in the way of getting anything productive done. It ended up annoying me so much that I left.

[rotten42]

To widen that a bit....

 

When you do a render for a client, they get the images / animation, and the project files and setup techniques are yours to keep, unless you priced for selling those too.

 

Does that apply in anyway to your employer?

Are they automatically entilted to all your development, setup and project files?

 

Probably mostly.... but, suppose have a project where you use some of your own stock resources, maybe photos you took and worked up to textures.... do you leave them those too....

 

I guess it's clear enough that they are entitled to anything you did while you were being paid to work.... but what if you use some intricate techniques that you have developed yourself over years, maybe before you ever worked for the company....

 

For my business, the client only gets the output files (images, movie)....never any of the set up files.

[Sawyer]

Ok then, if you're working for an employer, is it ethical not to use your full range of knowledge for them? ;-)

 

I would think it would depend on why you are witholding info. Are you doing it to better your employers competitor? To be spiteful? I would assume that most employers believe they own the information you assume while working for them. If you learn something and don't want to share it it may be a clear sign that you need to rethink your working situtaion.

[harryhood]

If you do freelance work, would you be contracted to do work alongside another freelancer if that is what the client wishes? Or is it usually just yourself? For example what if you are working on a project and the person/people you are working with are using illegal software. Would that be a likely scenario?

 

Along the same lines, and probably more probable would be competition from freelancers who use illegal software. The client asks if you can drive your price down to match theirs (someone mentioned this already in this thread). My question is what is a standard rate for a professional artist doing freelance work versus someone with illegal software who can charge much less? I know numbers vary but I ask because I'm thinking of presenting this ethical dilemma for my class and I would like to provide some standard rates for context. The exact figure isn't as important as the actual difference between the two (legal legit artist vs illegal). Thanks for any input.

[Charles Gaushell]

I was offered a position that was a bit weird. As part of my job I would train an Indian company (who worked for pennies to my dollar) to get them to do better illustrations. The images this company was getting from overseas were pretty cheap and it showed. I felt weird about that. Not immoral by any means but these were really expensive properties that were being illustrated (20-50 milllion dollar) it seemed that they could afford top dollar not 2 dollar an hour illustrations.

 

ultimatly I wasn't sure that they would need me longer than it took to train this company.

 

You hit on the one that bothers me, though indirectly. We are solicited constantly by overseas viz companies to help us with overflow work.

 

We absolutely refuse to hire any help from those sweatshops. Their boss rakes it in and doesn't pay them squat - and many are using illegal software.

 

On the otherhand, if you know the person you are working with overseas is making a fair wage and getting it directly, then I say go for it.

 

That is my personal opinion.

 

Some good points in this thread. Thanks for asking.

[Charles Gaushell]

I'll throw in the specific example that set me off down this line....

 

There's a Lightwave render trick where you spin light arrays and use motion blur as extra interpolation, as a fast GI fake.

 

Suppose I was the clever guy that thought this up, spent a lot of time working it out and automating it in my own time.

Later I'm working for a visualisation company, project comes up, very tight time contraints, so I fire up my trusty lighting rig and we make deadline.

Soon after that I move on.

Other people at the company dig out the scene files and start re-using my light rig in every scene they do for the next 10 years.

 

I didn't get paid for the light rig they are using, only for the particular project....

 

I know you don't have any legal rights to hang onto techniques.... but since we are talking ethics.... how much of my "expertise" are they able to re-use independantly ;-)

 

 

*Disclaimer... I don't develope many setups of much interest and don't pass on scene files ;-)

 

But you then have the issue of working for someone. When you work for them you are expected (in my opinion) as a professional to do everything you can dream up to make things better and more efficient.

 

I always did in my past life as a project architect - developed standards, CAD blocks, file systems, project profit tracking spreadsheets - all about doing the right thing.

 

I believe that I am called to always do my best wherever I am working. Otherwise we open ourselves up to a poor work ethic (and I've seen way too much of that in various firms).