Comment Public/Private, and SBIRs; U's and Dual Lic's (Score 1) 144
Two comments:
A large number of people have mentioned "public funded, therefore public property. However, there are many companies who scratch a living from SBIR's from NSF and/or NIH (small business innovative research grants). Public money, but not public use.
Is it reasonable?
Second, some university IP places will consider dual licenses as a good thing; a public OS license, and a second closed license (costing $$) for those interested in closed-source use. However, it depends on the investigator (after all, sales of software or libraries usually require some (limited) form of support, which isn't what most of us want to provide).
I'm speaking as a prof at a Uni, and am dual-employed (joint position) at a second non-profit research institution, which DOESN'T have the same flexibility as my Uni position (the latter "own everything...", though I'm looking at changing this at some point, at least for my own work). It makes life interesting, some times...
Note that it's why I like the GPL - using GPL'd licensed software restricts the licenses that the university can use -- it's my research, and if I am supposed to distribute the results, then there is only one approach that can be taken. W/o the GPL, the university has much more control over the license (though by the same token, they could restrict redistribution, that being the only alternative :-(.)
A large number of people have mentioned "public funded, therefore public property. However, there are many companies who scratch a living from SBIR's from NSF and/or NIH (small business innovative research grants). Public money, but not public use.
Is it reasonable?
Second, some university IP places will consider dual licenses as a good thing; a public OS license, and a second closed license (costing $$) for those interested in closed-source use. However, it depends on the investigator (after all, sales of software or libraries usually require some (limited) form of support, which isn't what most of us want to provide).
I'm speaking as a prof at a Uni, and am dual-employed (joint position) at a second non-profit research institution, which DOESN'T have the same flexibility as my Uni position (the latter "own everything...", though I'm looking at changing this at some point, at least for my own work). It makes life interesting, some times...
Note that it's why I like the GPL - using GPL'd licensed software restricts the licenses that the university can use -- it's my research, and if I am supposed to distribute the results, then there is only one approach that can be taken. W/o the GPL, the university has much more control over the license (though by the same token, they could restrict redistribution, that being the only alternative
