[thelist] Copyright ownership under LGPL

[David Bindel]

On Mon, 2004-06-14 at 21:03, Ken Schaefer wrote:
> Should you really be posting this type of information to a public list?

I sincerely apologize, Ken and the rest of thelist; I was frustrated and
too hasty in posting that.  Nevertheless, I divulged only anonymous info
(that may as well have been paraphrased, as I've now done below)
pertaining to the situation this person has me in, and I would still
appreciate y'all's advice.

On Mon, 2004-06-14 at 19:34, David Bindel wrote:
> Keep in mind that this is not even a business website; it is being 
> made as a small website for his friends and family to use.
> 
> He has already designed the website himself; my job only concerns
> writing a PHP backend to for user management, geneology, basic blog
> features, and picture/quote of the day.

My potential client will not accept anything less than full legal
ownership/copyright in order to:

1) avoid "copyright problems"
2) avoid "subsidizing" the development of future websites in which I
   might reuse code that I used in his website
3) ensure that his website is "one of a kind" (as far as internal PHP 
   code goes)

> I have no idea why he is so concerned about owning copyrights to
> everything, especially derivative works of LGPL'ed software.
> 
> I have already told him that I have no problem assigning him the 
> rights to use, display, modify, extend, and even sell the software 
> himself in the contract.

However, the new terms he has presented to me would prevent me from
using my LGPL'ed software in the creation of his website (as I had
originally planned), and honestly, I do not feel like rewriting
something from scratch and not being able to reuse it again because I
sold the copyright for a less than fair amount.

If I was dealing with a well-funded business, I'd have no regrets
selling the copyright for a swell sum, but this is a family website with
a not-so-huge budget.

Is this client worth keeping?

Thanks, and my apologies again for my previous post,
David Bindel

http://www.davidbindel.com