Steve Bertrand wrote:
> My project is a suite for Internet Service Provider management.
> The company that employs me ...
> I have never signed anything to say I ``can't'' give it away.
First -- I'm an engineer, not a lawyer. If you want legal advice, hire
an attorney.
That said, knowing a little about intellectual property law helps me in
my vocation. I've been in situations similar to yours. The following
topics come to mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret
I suspect that the software you wrote is copyrighted as an unpublished
work and the confidential property of your employer.
In any case, the next step is to do a cost/ benefit analysis, business
plan, etc., comparing the current arrangement against creating and
operating a free/ open source software (FOSS) project based on all or
part of the software you wrote. What does the company put in? What do
they get out? What do you put in? What do you get out? Who else will
use this software, and why? Who else will contribute time or money, and
why? What is the fallback plan? What is the exit plan? Be realistic.
Better yet, be pessimistic.
HTH,
David
p.s. Be wary of disclosure agreements, intellectual property assignment
agreements, etc., and people who say "sign it now or else". I once
chose to be fired rather than sign something that could have made be
unemployable.
p.p.s. If you just have an itch to release some FOSS, do something on
your own:
http://search.cpan.org/~dpchrist/Math-TriangularNumbers-r0_03/lib/Math/T
riangularNumbers.pm
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dirdiff/
I don't recall a single inquiry for either of the above; ever. I no
longer use the first, so it hasn't changed in a while. I use the second
often, and it's 24 versions newer than what is posted!
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