[OT] Re: Intellectual Property in Network Design

Sun Feb 15 22:34:51 UTC 2015

On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 09:53:46 -0600, Jack Bates said:

> want IP; legal protection). One way around this, most likely, is to
> establish your art as public domain (allowing you continued use of the
> foundation work, while losing the more specific details associated with
> that one project). By doing so, you may be able to protect the art
> itself. A lawyer would know best, of course.

Actually, doesn't even take a laweyer.

"Public domain" has a very specific meaning, and is probably *not* what you
want in this case.  It basically means "I disavow ownership and all rights to
this, and anybody can take this and do whatever they want with it, including
making money off it". Most importantly, you can't even waive liability - this
is why stuff like the MIT X11 or similar licenses got created - you need to
keep your rights in order to attach a "by taking this, you promise not to sue
me to my skivvies".clause.  If you put it in the public domain, somebody can
take it, change it, use it, make a ton of money off it, and then *still* sue
you to your skivvies if it malfunctions (say, their network breaks because
you didn't include any anti-DDoS support, but you could have, and they get hit
with one).

Now here's were you want to double-check with a lawyer.  Make your base code a
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license - people can make copies of it, but can't
make derivative works (in other words, they can't make changes to fit their
environment) or use it for commercial purposes (which is a game stopper if
you're trying to make money off it).  You still have all rights, so you can
then negotiate the rights to the difference between your base and the
particular client's install,  That may still be non-optimal for your use,
because everybdoy can make a copoy - but if you were OK with public domain,
that's probably not a show-stopper here.  Would be if you wanted to keep
trade secrecy status on your base (so consult a good IP lawyer ;)

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