BC Public Service employees who comment on public social media sites in their professional capacity, or who wish to comment on work-related issues in their personal capacity, must adhere to the BC Public Service Standards of Conduct.
- It is essential that employees avoid any conflicts of interest when using GitHub
- Personal use of GitHub must never be confused with professional use
- For example, a commercial opportunity may develop related to code you are familiar with
- Before exploring the opportunity, you must discuss the potential conflict with your employer and come to an agreement on how to proceed
Activity on GitHub is primarily concerned with sharing or generating source code and related documentation such as specifications or descriptions related to the objectives of a project, which typically will not directly involve any information linked to individuals. However, you still need to ensure that any code or documentation you post does not contain:
- information or Records that are not accessible pursuant to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act;
- sample data that includes personally identifying information;
- third-party rights the government is not authorized to license;
- information subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade-marks and official marks, and design rights
The Copyright Act (Canada) applies to government employees in the same manner that it applies to private citizens. Unauthorized use of copyrighted material – including any unauthorized licensing of copyrighted materials owned by third parties – is an infringement of the intellectual property rights of the rights holder.
Go back to the Contents List or continue reading Licenses