Hi All,
This is very OT, but is related to mod_perl. I have a contract as yet
unsigned
with a Web Company to possibly rewrite their horrible perl 4 era CGI
apps
as nice clean mostly OO mod_perl apps. It's a simple job, rather
generic.
I usually license my code with the Artistic License, so this is not a
Licensing
question, exactly. In the contract, they have sent me, they have a
paragraph
that signs the rights to all inventions over to them.
>From my perspective, what little invention there might be in these apps,
is drawn directly from freely available documentation and advice, and
the apps will of course rely heavily on CPAN modules, as well as
things I've written before. So, what I'm looking
for is advice or a paragraph that establishes that the greater part of
invention
is already public, that these programs use free software, and that
non-specific
to their business inventions, if any should be returned to the
community, etc.
I'm not a lawyer. :-) In the past, I've just ignored such paragraphs and
I've
lowered the boom in a banner at the top of my code. But, I'd like to
put something
in any contract that I sign and these people have no idea how to deal
with free software.
They want me to sign an NDA now that I've seen their hideous spaghetti,
which is
of course full of copyright notices. I told them that if anyone stole
this code, they would
need their head checked!
If someone has crafted any pro free software contracts that cover
invention and
they would like to share, I'd be grateful.
Cheers,
Ed
