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[Tarus Balog <tarus AT opennms.org>]

On Apr 26, 2006, at 9:05 PM, Márcia wrote:

> I have a new client who's making me sign a contract giving him all the
> rights to have, alter, reuse and pretty much resell any of my source
> code, created for any project we do together.

Most work you do as a consultant to another company falls under the  
category "work for hire". In that case there is usually a clause in  
the contract that states the hiring company owns, in its entirety,  
your work product: i.e. your application and your source code. They  
are paying you to write it, thus they want to own it. It's very common.

It is up to you to ask to have that clause modified or removed.  
Usually it is a pain, but can be done. I'm in the UK right now in the  
same situation. Since I develop code under the GPL, I ask for a  
modification of that paragraph to point out that all work I do will  
need to be published under the GPL as well. The client can "own" it  
as much as it can be owned (i.e. they can have the copyright if they  
so desire), but it must be licensed under the GPL or I charge 5 times  
as much.

-T

-----

Tarus Balog
The OpenNMS Group, Inc.
Main  : +1 919 533 0160   Fax:   +1 503-961-7746
Direct: +1 919 647 4749   Skype: tarusb
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