Photographers are able to do so because the photography industry as a whole largely subscribes to such billing models and IP provisions. I've had a lot of exper

Photographers are able to do so because the photography industry as a whole largely subscribes to such billing models and IP provisions. I've had a lot of experience with the professional photography world with my family, and for the most part, expectations about contract terms are largely the same. From studios shooting elementary school kids for their first yearbook photos all the way to large assignment shoots for multinationals, it's understood that the photographer retains IP rights as the norm. Clients will sometimes purchase IP rights outright, but they're going to pay to do so though it's pretty rare (most photos for marketing projects, for instance, will only be used for the duration of particular campaigns). I can't really see the same model ever being used for development work. Off the top of my head, I can't recall a single model contract for design or development I've read online that doesn't include terms for the transfer of IP rights. When you're designing an identity for a company, that identity will eventually become that company's public face. No company on earth is going to play games there by letting a third-party have any form of control over it (and that's exactly what licensing terms would be). Their legal department would kill any project before it began, solely out of concern for what you might do in the future. Let's say you decide to raise your licensing terms in the future based on the company's growth as a brand. Or better yet, let's say you're dead and now your estate controls things. How will that pan out? The same goes for code. If you wrote a major component for FedEx's logistics management, the sort of thing where other major components subsequently rely on it, what would happen if you decided to play games? You'd have effective control over their entire logistics systems, and that's something that would terrify any corporate lawyer. While I can appreciate the desire to look at alternative contract terms, licensing ala what professional photographers and artists use is something I think is DOA.