Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Florida

Re: Is the (NDA) Non Disclosure Agreement I signed void?

"Open Source" is a broad concept, and it has implications for how the original author of the code allows other to use it. I understand that, in theory, derivative works of open source code are also supposed to be open source.

Your statement that "Open Source [makes] sure that you could never make anyone have to keep any of the Source secret because it would always be bound by the Open Source License" confuses things from a legal perspective. First, "Open Source" doesn't make sure of anything because it's not a person. A person/entity owns the Source Code for the software and chooses to allow its copyrigts to the code to be lax or nonexistant. Second, whether anyone could be forced to keep any of the Source secret is up to the copyright owner. I think what you really mean is that no third party could force a derivative work of the Source code to be kept secret, which I believe is technically acurate (but arguable). Third, the Open Source License, in whatever form, is granted by the copyright owner and only that person/entity has any right to say how the license is used or enforced.

The legal question here is can your employer make you keep a derivative work of an Open Source Code a secret through an NDA. The answer is Yes. This is because you have made a 'work for hire' for your employer, and anything he has paid you to do is owned by him. Further, an NDA is a contract between your employer and you, and it has nothing to do with any third party. So, your rights and obligations are specifically dictated by your employment relationship - not by standards in the industry or a software license from a third party (open source or other). In legal speak, it's called "privity of contract."

Now, whether your employer is right or not, I have serious doubts about. But, right or wrong, that does not release you from your contractual obligations to your employer, which you agreed to in the signed NDA. If you breach the NDA and your employer sues you, you could use your employer's 'unclean hands' as a defense.

Bottom line, can they make you sign the NDA? Yes, and they did. Can they enforce it? Breach it, get sued, and you can find out.

Hope that helps.