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Discussion on: AMA with Heather Meeker, Open Source Licensing Expert (and Musician)

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Heather Meeker

I have plenty, a few of which I can't share. :) But here are a few general examples -- the names have been omitted to protect the disappointed.

  • Be careful about the name of your project. You should treat it as a trademark and protect it. Some of the worst heartaches I have seen are fights about who gets to control a project, and legally, that comes down to using the project name. Don't let someone else hijack your hard work.

  • If you develop a project while at a company, and want to spin in off into a business, be sure to have a written understanding with your company about it. Most of them will be cooperative if you ask. Again, the legal property at issue is usually the project name, which would usually belong to the company. It can be difficult to understand what rights you have in projects you do "on your own time" -- the law does not track most people's expectations. So you probably need to accept that your company will have a seat at the table in your new venture, and it's best to get that into the open early, rather than have it come back to bite you when you are doing your first financing.

  • If your project is under a copyleft license like GPL, consider whether you need a contribution license agreement (CLA). I have worked with many companies that did not use one, then had to backtrack to get rights from contributors who were no longer engaged, or even friendly.

Thanks for the question!