<ianal>The same way you get anything else: buy it. You can ask the owner to sign the rights over, and maybe they will, but at this point it's just like any othe

<ianal>The same way you get anything else: buy it. You can ask the owner to sign the rights over, and maybe they will, but at this point it's just like any other thing they own. Who the owner is might not be clear-cut: if the client paid for your time and then rejected the result, they almost certainly own it. If the consulting company created it on spec or in some other way ate the cost, you'd have to determine whether the client or the consulting company owns it. At the end of the day, though, someone owns it. They'll either give it to you for free or they'll want to get paid. The easiest way is to simply ask and take it from there. I've had things signed over to me for free in almost exactly this situation, both in order to open source it and in order to keep it private (in both cases, nothing ultimately came of it). Just make sure you get something in writing.</ianal>