OSS licensing

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miazmaticdotcom

Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2003
Messages
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My friend and I are planning to write some custom software for our school over the summer. We are of course going to be compensated for our time and effort.

However, we definitely like open source and free software, so we are looking for creative ways to license it that ensure we are compensated but still allow user end code modification and redistribution.

One option we were looking at was to distribute the software for free, and then offer paid contracts for setup and support. We were also perhaps considering allowing paid users to modify the code for their internal use, without authorizing free redistribution.

Basically we are trying to build a half-breed between a commercial and OSS product. For those of you who have traveled this road before, any advice/ideas?
 
I would ask the school what license they want. Because they might want a closed license and may want to own all copyright to the code. You would most likely have to get them to agree in writing before making it OSS.
 
The director of technology (who would be using the product the most) is actually very supportive of open source - he has been replacing Dreamweaver with Nvu and the like.

I realize, however, that the school will own some of the rights as they provided the spec. However the product may be marketable to other schools as well so we want to keep our options open.

So basically because they provided the spec they have the final say on the licensing?
 
Provide a quote for the work only and a different for the work + all rights to the code. If you see it as being markettable to other schools, change your pricing to reflect that.

Also, using and sharing OSS are two totally different things :p. I've seen a lot of people who use but dont share ...

--KK
 
If you're needing a *blessed* course of action, you should probably run it by the school's legal dept. (collective groan in 3... 2... 1...)

Also, you may want to look at a variation from the Creative Commons license. They even give you a web tool.
 
I would recommend this...

if this school is going to pay you TONS then I would say, make the source code available to them.

If the software isn't costing them much, then I wouldn't let it go strictly to them. The thing I' m saying is, you want to get your money out of this as well as you can I am sure, so do what ever makes you the most over time.

Perhaps you can could PM me some more information about your project? I work with my schools technology department, and I'm looking for a project.

-randyc
 
Without another agreement in place, the school owns the exclusive rights to the code you develop for them. Since you want a different agreement, you need to make one (with your own lawer) and get the school's lawyer to sign it and execute it on behalf of the school.

Yes, really. Otherwise, you're exposing yourself to legal action later on, when the school says they don't remember such an arrangement.
 
As far as granting non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-distribution rights but giving them source (IE - giving them source without being OSS) that's plenty easy to do as well and has a long history (Unix was originally distributed this way).
 
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