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Eddy Vluggen wrote: But you might be selling all your work, without having any rights.
What it is usually done in the PLC Industry, customers buy the working solution and the source code, although I always kept the copyright and the right to further use my own created functionality, but only the generic stuff that can be used everywhere, in the moment that was something relative to the industrial line I had programmed, it was ownership of the customer and could not be re-used.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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There is Copyright and Ownership considerations, and the impact on other NDAs and Contracts you may have signed, plus the "Work-For-Hire" rules that might apply to you.
I've learned a hard lesson on this. After working with my attorney, we went with a dual ownership license for one client who demanded (and paid) for code ownership. We each owned a non-infringement COPY of the code, that came along with a dual non-compete.
My excitement to help a prior company get off the ground, resulted in me losing control of my own code, that I had a documented history of. Simply because the "crook/liar/cheat" on the other end of the table would lie through his teeth under oath, and I would not. [Our court system is a joke in this regard]
I was stuck with an untenable situation. Worse, if the people you are working with today EVER sell the company to some Hedge Fund who sees a chance to leverage your work, they behave very differently than the person who signed the contract with you.
Finally, I stopped doing a lot of work where I deliver the source. The client can "own" their compiled programs/scripts/etc. But I consider my source like Lawyers consider their Template Contracts! (Imagine a law firm that, once they write a contract, is disallowed from ever using those same paragraphs, or SIMILAR paragraphs in a future contract... Even for a similar company, in a similar situation? But, somehow, Source Code, and the knowledge and years that leverages it's creation, can have such restrictions placed against it, and in some NDAs include FUTURE enhancements to said code! Meaning the law firm, if they make the paragraph even better for me, CANNOT use that enhancement in future contracts).
Good Luck!
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About the licensing you already have some good answers, but most of them are considering the licensing of the software as they know it, not in the PLC world.
Working with PLCs, it is really easy to get a copy of the PLC content (a.k.a. the source code), most PLCs and some robot vendors save the code in a easy to download and readable format (heck, some robots have it in plain text) and the security possibilities are not that good (even the "KNOW-HOW-PROTECT" of Siemens is relative easily bypassed).
Considering it I see a big fat problem with this, and is... how to find out / prove the license break.
Example:
You program the PLCs at customer 1 with your software, a third party comes to do add a new small station that has to interact with the sps and takes a copy from online, adds or changes code, transfer back the new version.
Time later (with a big portion of luck) you find your code in a completely different place, because the guy that was at customer 1 kept the copy of the code and liked some of your functions and started using them.
Here would be "relative" easy to find out who copied and (ab)used your work. But that would be a copyright problem against that 3rd party guy, but not a license problem.
And none of the companies you visit could be considered guilty, or would have to pay you any "damage" for it.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
modified 3-Aug-21 16:59pm.
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modification of it in clue is unfortunate (12)
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infelicitous
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Beat me by THAT much. Spent too long on UN... anagrams
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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So did I Peter then I saw it - you can take it if you like I've done plenty lately
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I've done 3 in the last week or two, so you keep it.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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?
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Do you really think that I would get up in the middle of the night for that?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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If you were setting a clue at 9.00am your time it wouldn't be the middle of the night
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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That's true, but the OP's post suggests that it's always at 9 AM his time. Depending on where you sit on the world, this could be in the middle of the night. You are not one of those flat Earth guys, right?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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CodeWraith wrote: You are not one of those flat Earth guys, right?
I have proof the Earth is not flat: we have cats. If it was flat, they would have pushed everything off the edge by now ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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They still if they wanted to. After all, they are still deities.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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it's already 9pm here!
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Super Lloyd wrote: it's already 9pm here!
And it's already tomorrow 9:00 am here
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All I know is that it sure as hell won't be at 4:00am!
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!
Bastard Programmer from Hell
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I wake up every morning and drink a dark potion made from magic beans that brings me back to life!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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but does it make your stalk grow up to the sky?
Living in a gingerbread house...
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I think there are some magic pills for that as well.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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You convinced me, oh great wizard!
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Beans Beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you toot . . . . .
That tale you spoke of ? Perhaps you meant a tail of vapor?
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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