Potentially important real-time on-line discussion

[Kyler Laird]

Wojciech Kocjan <wojciech at n0spam-kocjan.org> writes:

>Kyler Laird wrote:
>> People pay (what I consider to be) lots of money for me to write software
>> for them.  I insist that it be open source (which makes for interesting
>> contract negotiations sometimes).  I would be *thrilled* if someone took
>> my code and used it.  My value is in providing solutions - not shielding
>> intellectual property from use.

>While I do agree with you, another problem is that you spent your time 
>and your customer paid you to do the software.

No, the customer paid for me to provide a solution.  I've done that.
The customer is happy.  Any further usefulness of the code is gravy.

>Would it be fair if at this time, some other programmer took your code, 
>added (not replaced) him to the copyright notice, changed about 5 things 
>and charged the same for that?

If it's allowed by the license (which we've been terribly loose about),
then sure; that'd be dandy.  The code is almost incidental to the
solution provided.  It would make me happy if the same (or slightly
modified) code helps someone else solve a problem.

>Note that I do not plan to release customer's application as opensource, 
>only parts of it. I think this is a bit better than releasing all of it, 
>since my company and my customer spent a lot of time on developing and 
>facing problems. If some other company wants to solve similar problems, 
>they can always come to me either writing the software, or consulting them.

Even if it's open source that's likely to happen.  There's a good chance
that using a little of your time is going to be cheaper than hiring
someone else to get started.

--kyler