Non-Competition Agreements for Technical Writers - ethical issues

[Svi Ben-Elya]

There is an interesting discussion in Israel on the Non-Competition
Agreements or clauses that tech writers are asked to sign by outsourcing
companies. The discussion began on Techshoret (the Israeli equivalent of
Techwr-l) by a new immigrant tech writer concerned about signing an
agreement that would potentially prevent her from continuing to work as a
tech writer in Israel if and when she left the outsourcer. The issues are
both legal (is it enforcable) and ethical. 
 
The discussion is now continuing on www.elephant.org.il with different pages
for comments on different ethical questions. If there is some type of
consensus or local industry standard for these agreements that comes out of
the discussion, I will be more than happy to summarize. I would like to get
input from all of you because even though the legal aspects may be relevant
only to Israel, the ethical ones are similar elsewhere.
 
Thank you in advance.
 
- Svi Ben-Elya -
svi at ieee.org
054-2356235
www.elephant.org.il <http://www.elephant.org.il/>