A Software License That's Libre But Not Gratis?

Posted by kdawson on Saturday February 14, 2009 @05:01PM from the give-the-customer-what-he-wants dept.

duncan bayne writes "My company is developing some software using Ruby. It's proprietary software — decidedly not free-as-in-beer — but I don't want to tie my customers down with the usual prohibitions on reverse engineering, modification, etc. After all, they're licensing the product from us, so I think they should be able to use it as they see fit. Does anyone know of an existing license that could be used in this case? Something that gives the customer the freedom to modify the product as they want, but prohibits them from creating derivative works, or redistributing it in any fashion?"

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Re:They're paying for it but can't give it away??? by sumdumass · 2009-02-14 17:24 · Score: 0, Redundant

It depends on what their employment contract states. By default, works for hire end up being the person who hired the work but if his contract states that he retains the copyright for what he made, then he does.
More then likely, he is a small start up or something that he works at as well as owns or manages. In that case, he is both, the employee and owner which gives him the said control.