How to enforce copyright in source code for use by others [duplicate]

Question

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What is the preferred way to protect ownership of one's code (e.g. copyright, licenses, etc) (3 answers)

What is the “default” software license? (8 answers)

Closed 5 years ago.

I have coded a project for private use. I currently have no intention for commercializing it but the plan might change in the future. A friend of mine now wants to use it for his project, and asks if he can incorporate my code into his work.

I have no idea whether he wants to commercialize his project and I do not care if he does. However, I do want to make sure that the copyright of my code still belongs to me regardless what he does with his.

What is the best way to ensure and enforce this? I would rather specify everything clear, sound and upfront than getting into arguments, or worse, legal stuff later.

Answer 1

You need to provide him with a license to use your code.

The Apache license should suffice. It provide liberal redistribution provisions, while preserving the original copyrights of all contributors, and doesn't contain a "copyleft" provision. Copyleft means roughly that the entity using your code must open-source their code under the same license; commercial, closed-source companies generally avoid copyleft.

When you write code, you own the copyright, period (unless it is a Work for Hire). Copyright is never transferred to anyone else, unless you explicitly transfer the copyright. If you are an employee, it is generally assumed that you're creating a Work for Hire; the company owns the copyright. If you are a contractor, you will generally include a provision that transfers copyright to the entity contracting you.

Enforcement is a bit trickier. You can't enforce with a license, or any other legal agreement. All those things do is spell out the terms you expect the licensee to follow.