Which License Should I Use?

[Mike Meyer]

"mojosam" <nk67v8o02 at sneakemail.com> writes:
> I will be doing the bulk of the coding on my own time, because I need
> to be able to take these tools with me when I change employers.
> However, I'm sure that in the course of using these tools, I will need
> to spend time on the job debugging or tweaking them.  I do not want my
> current employer to have any claim on my code in any way.  Usually if
> you program on company time, that makes what you do a "work for hire".
> I can't contaminate my code like that.  Does that mean the GPL is the
> strongest defense in this situation?

IANAL, but I don't believe the GPL helps in this situation. It places
conditions on redistributing the code; it doesn't force you to
redistribute modifieed code. Your employers could refuse to let you
take the code with you because they own partial copyright on it. They
couldn't sell it later because of the GPL on it, but that's not your
issue here.

I tend to try to get clients to agree that code that comes in from
outside can go back out under whatever license it came in on. That
makes it clear up front that the results go back to the community,
which means you can get at them.

If you deal with this issue, the license that best meets your
description are the BSD-like license, which have been called
"copycenter" licenses. They place no restrictions whatsoever on the
the further use.

       <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.