[twpd]

I'm finding it hard to hold my tongue here having resolved to say nothing more in this thread but.......

Since when did the techniques of riding fast become intelectual property of an individual or an organisation? A book or a video etc can have copyright (and I am sure that CSS training materials have this) but, the techniques of riding? What nonsense! You cannot equate riding technique to source code. You can attach copyright to source code (although that is debatable in some circles) but, you cannot copyright or apply the principles of intellectual property to riding fast. If you could can you imagine the sheer chaos it would cause? We'd have individuals and organisation copyrighting everything from potato peeling to learning how to adjust your chain!

Can you imagine TP asking anyone who is quicker than him how they go faster around a corner? "Sorry old boy, that's my i/p and you have to pay for that". Let's extend this further - if this line of thinking was to be followed further then one would have to assume that it would not be permissible for a student to relate the knowledge and techniques he/she learnt with CSS to a third party. Moving on from that again, it would be akin to a normal school of education applying the principles of i/p to Kirchoff's Law!

I would love to see that stand up in a court cos it wouldn't.

For sure there is a boundary where the undertaking certain types work in one's spare time away from the principle business of the employer becomes a conflict of interests wrt the employer (most contracts of employment have terms dealing with this). It would be reasonable for CSS to expect TP not to teach CSS techniques outside of the school but, let's not confuse the knowledge of riding fast with "technology" that can protected a la i/p.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I deal with i/p and copyright on a daily basis in contract law in my professional capacity. In a previous life to this I used to be a technical trainer for a large US corporation - teaching aspects of device manufacturing to engineers from the likes of Intel and AMD. Again, we could copyright training materials, documents, processes/procedures etc relating to a particular aspect of technology but, we could not apply this to the knowledge of the general principles of device fabrication.