4 ms·

I always try to get those clauses removed, but I'm not always successful. One time a company I worked for used some of my personal code in their product, with

I always try to get those clauses removed, but I'm not always successful. One time a company I worked for used some of my personal code in their product, with my permission. When they merged with another company, the lawyers tried to take ownership of it. I pointed out that my contract was different to the standard contract and they had no claim. They then came back saying that I had to assume any liability they might face for using it. I demurred and said they were free to remove my code if they had any concerns. They kept the code. What I learned from this is that even if you trust the people and the organisation you work with, you have to protect your work. The lawyers were just doing their job in the merger.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> They then came back saying that I had to assume any liability they might face for using it. That's a fairly scary consequence of not using a standard Free and Open Source software licence. As you made a special arrangement to permit them to use the code, I presume your code wasn't already publicly available under a standard copycenter licence?
- MattPalmer1086 6y ago
  That's right, the code was not open source, it was shareware. In those days, I either wasn't aware, or there weren't widely available and understood licenses you could use. I agree that this was a scary consequence of making my software available. I paid a lot more attention to licensing after that experience, and I now use standard open source licenses to protect myself as well as the work.