Getting Paid To Abandon an Open Source Project?

darkeye writes "I'm facing a difficult dilemma and looking for opinions. I've been contributing heavily to an open source project, making considerable changes to code organization and quality, but the work is unfinished at the moment. Now, a company is approaching me to continue my changes. They want to keep the improvements to themselves, which is possible since the project is published under the BSD license. That's fair, as they have all the rights to the work they pay for in full. However, they also want me to sign a non-competition clause, which would bar me from ever working on and publishing results for the original open source project itself, even if done separately, in my free time. How would you approach such a decision? On one side, they'd provide resources to work on an interesting project. On the other, it would make me an outcast in the project's community. Moreover, they would take ownership of not just what they paid for, but also my changes leading up to this moment, and I wouldn't be able to continue on my original codebase in an open source manner if I sign their contract."

Comments

The dark side (tm)

[Gewalt]

You can't begin to imagine the power of the dark side.

Re:The dark side (tm)

[Anpheus]

He's obviously already a heretic whose head should be put on a pike and bandied around the halls of the FSF, because, well, duh, BSD licensing is practically the same thing as throwing your code in a junkyard or landfill. It's a travesty.

Now everybody get your torches and pitchforks, and chant "G-P-L," repeatedly if you will.

Re:The dark side (tm)

[mechsoph]

Wait, when did the Red Cross become evil?

Re:The dark side (tm)

[Mr2cents]

And pray they don't read slashdot, since your complete negotiating strategy will be available online. Way to go..

Re:The dark side (tm)

[cayenne8]

"That exchange is just as frequently attributed to George Bernard Shaw, and occasionally to Groucho Marx. Nobody seems to have a source, though, so it's pretty likely that none of them said it!"

It was me, I did it in a bar awhile back....was hilarious.

Re:The dark side (tm)

[Sneftel]

That was the lamest In Soviet Russia joke ever.

let me get this straight...

[TheSHAD0W]

So, they're offering to pay you to go fork yourself?

Re:What I would do is this...

[Kjella]

If they did not accept that, I would forbid them to use any code from the project, and bring down the wrath of the relevant copyright laws, if they were not prepared to abide by the licensing terms.

Highly aggressive and completely clueless, not a good combination.

Re:Sell out if you want but don't sell out cheap

[MrNaz]

how many of you would look down on him for "selling out" for USD1 billion?

Depends. Are we talking 2009 dollars or 2010 dollars?