Politics on Bulrush Labs — Richard Tibbetts

What the Rally for Sanity Meant for Me

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:46:00 +0000

The weekend before last my family went to the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington DC. We went for a few reasons: because we hadn’t been to DC in a while, because a lot of our friends would be in town, because it was a cheap trip thanks to points/miles. It did end up being a fun trip, even if the rally was too crowded to be safe for the baby and we saw less of the stage presentation than we would have seen on TV. Many friends were in town, everyone was in a good mood, and there were lots of things to see and do.

The Real Reasons for Eliminating Non-Competes in Massachusetts

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:06:00 +0000

As I posted in December, there is legislation afoot to ban non-compete agreements in Massachusetts, and I support it. As momentum has picked up, more discussion has ensued. On July 22 the Boston Bar Association will host Freedom To Compete? A Symposium on Bills Affecting Employee Non-Compete Agreements, but for now the discussion is occuring online.

One frequent claim is that we who oppose non-competes are only doing it to emulate California. To whit, in the comment thread of Amrith Kumar’s post “In defense of employee non-compete agreements” he claims

The Downsides of Limited Intellectual Property in Psychiatric Care

Wed, 06 May 2009 11:47:00 +0000

As a software entrepreneur, intellectual property is a fact of life for me, like death and taxes. Between patents and DMCA protection, free software and licensing, it often feels like software is handicapped by the amount of intellectual property protection available and the ways it is applied. Innovation spreads naturally in software, and patents hinder it more often than they help. Traditional copyright is sufficient for enforcing basic software licensing, and even that may be too restrictive if the goal is to maximize innovation.

Ban Non-Competes in Massachusetts

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:17:00 +0000

I have never liked non-compete agreements. As an individual, I find them annoying. As an employer, they have caused me headaches. And politically, I think they impinge too much on individual rights. Furthermore, they are one of the ways in which Massachusetts is inferior to California for startups. That last one really bothers me.

The good news is at least one legislator is doing something about it. Will Brownsberger has announced that he will be sponsoring legislation to abolish non-compete agreements in Massachusetts. Xconomy reported about it in a story earlier this month, “Legislator Drafting Bill to Outlaw Non-Compete Agreements in Massachusetts“.