Neither am I an attorney, but here is a snippet of a canned memorandum of understanding I gain agreement on when I start work for a new client:

15. Any custom scripts or forms developed for the client's web sites or server shall be jointly owned and copyrighted by the vendor and the client and the actual author(s) retained by the vendor to develop such scripts. Such scripts shall be licensed under the Gnu Public License and may be released by the vendor or the client under such terms to the general public, unless the subject of a seperate agreement prior to the development of such scripts.

Folks who know nothing about gpl focus on the hours, rates, deliverables. Folks who know about oss licensing issues focus on the hours, rates, deliverables. I have developed in house software that handled client specific applications in highly competitive, limited markets. That business logic was proprietary. And I agree with the comments above about the need to respect those boundaries if one expects the trust and continued business of a client.

But my stock contract, the point from where I start negotiations, is that I may, but am not required to release code developed under gpl, leaving me free to reuse code. The three days I spent on code for a previous client becomes the two hour solution for a new client.

-- Hugh

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