open source licence question

[Richard Weait]

On Mon, 2008-06-23 at 15:16 -0400, bob 295 wrote:
> Does anyone know of what I would term an open source licence with a specific 
> period of exclusive use?     In otherwords changes can be used in a 
> proprietary fashion of a predetermined period (eg. 1 year) and then those 
> changes revert to a standard GPL type licence.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> bob

First you need to PAY YOUR LAWYER for the right answer.  

There are many variables in play here: 
Who created the original code?  
Is there an existing license?  
What clauses of that license are you triggering?
Are you contributing to a work for hire?  
What is the permitted use by the client during the exclusivity period?

Two cases that might work...

1)  You work for them on a LAMP stack and add stuff for them as a work
for hire.  Presuming that they don't distribute, but only use
internally, they have no obligation to disclose.  You have no rights to
disclose the work for hire.  In this case you could ask for a contract
that allows you to republish the work for hire after time-period of
non-disclosure.  

2) You're the author of an all original work that they want to use
exclusively for a time period and you are not doing this as work for
hire.  You haven't yet published it under the GPL so the genie is not
yet out of the bottle.  In this case you as the exclusive author control
the license terms.  You can offer them exclusivity for a period of time
as part of your sales contract, then publish widely under your license
of choice after it expires.  

In each case you need to talk address venue and penalties, extensions,
permitted and excluded uses, yadda yadda...  

Your lawyer can sort all the details out and make it work for you.  

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