Why I must never write a 3d application again ;-)

I was recently forced to remove references to a previous employer of mine from this very web site. Instead of just telling me directly (I asked them to tell me what they wanted removed six or seven times, via e-mail and on the telephone, for more than a month), I got a letter from their lawyer. Seems that it is really difficult to tell someone directly what's wrong. That reminds me of the "American way" of talking to people. ;-) Here's my good advice on that topic: never ever put hyperlinks to (or even names of) your previous employers into your online resume or anywhere else on your web site. Okay, there's not much point to having an online resume at all anymore, but that's obviously your problem.

Another point of interest was their claim that I was still in possession of source code that belongs to said company, which is of course untrue. Now I am forced to state that a third time - this time in a real legal document. Talking 'bout paranoia. Part of that source code is a 3d engine, which is not a big deal at all and just contains some Direct3D calls (my brother and I wrote the engine ourselves, so I know exactly what's inside). Since I was bound to an NDA that states I couldn't use any of the knowledge I learned there (which amounts to nothing, really, since there wasn't anything to learn), the lawyer informed me that I am not allowed to write a 3d application ever again. If that were correct, I guess that there's a lot of people that should be sued now around the globe. I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the 3d engine itself is a derivative works of someone else's technology (in this case Microsoft Direct3D), so it is not covered by the NDA. I'll keep you informed about the outcome as soon as I know it myself.

I think they're just angry that I left their company and removed a lot of know-how from their ranks in the process, so they try very hard to make my life as difficult as possible.