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Comments: 2 +-   getting paid to abandon an open source project? on Sunday October 05 2008, @03:41AM darkeye

Submitted by darkeye on Sunday October 05 2008, @03:41AM
programming
darkeye writes "I'm facing a difficult dilemma, in which the Slashdot community might have an opinion that could help me. I've been contributing to an open source project heavily, making considerable changes to code organization and quality, but which are unfinished at the moment. Now a company is approaching me to continue my changes. They want to keep the improvements to themselves, which can be done, as the project is published under the BSD license. While this is still fair, as they have all the rights to the work they pay for in full, but, they want me to sign a non-competition clause, which would bar me from ever working on and publishing results on the original open source project itself, even if done separately in my free time.

Aside from ideological arguments (you should give back to the community you're taking from), how would you approach such a dilemma? On one side, they'd provide resources to work on an interesting project. On the other, it would make me an outcast in the project's community, Moreover, they would take ownership of not just to what they'd pay for, but also of my changes leading up to this moment — as I wouldn't be able to continue on my original codebase in an open source manner if I sign their contract."
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  • This sounds evil, if you're not desperate for a job I would kindly turn their offer down. You could also try to convince them to let you commit your changes to the project. It could be a nice PR move for them, having someone contribute to an Open Source project instead of just leeching off of it. However, it can be very though to convince traditional mangagers of this.

  • Barring you from working on the same project again (or same field again?) might be unenforceable. Several jobs have non-compete clauses in their contracts, but several judges have struck them down. It really doesn't seem practical, or reasonable, to accept a lifetime ban for a job. Also, how long does your contract with your new employer last? Definitely do not accept if it is an "at-will" employment offer. They'll just fire you the first month, and they have eliminated a competitor with minimal cost. Also

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