It would be really nice to be able to say that, but it is only really possible when we have control over the client's desires for licensing.
Since we sometimes do work where we don't own the IP ourselves, we can't do this. On a few occasions we have wanted to use elements of code developed for one client at another client - similar to you wanting to use code in another project - and have had to seek relicensing of portions of code from our clients. Since the code in question is unlikely to be business-related (it's usually some way we think we've done a particularly good job in some infrastructure) we haven't had problems with clients refusing us.
Nonetheless, we can't *assume* that it will be OK automatically, so we can't provide any such assurance to staff either. Maybe one day all of our work can be on FOSS projects, and we could do that, but I won't hold my breath!
It would be nice to be able to
It would be really nice to be able to say that, but it is only really possible when we have control over the client's desires for licensing.
Since we sometimes do work where we don't own the IP ourselves, we can't do this. On a few occasions we have wanted to use elements of code developed for one client at another client - similar to you wanting to use code in another project - and have had to seek relicensing of portions of code from our clients. Since the code in question is unlikely to be business-related (it's usually some way we think we've done a particularly good job in some infrastructure) we haven't had problems with clients refusing us.
Nonetheless, we can't *assume* that it will be OK automatically, so we can't provide any such assurance to staff either. Maybe one day all of our work can be on FOSS projects, and we could do that, but I won't hold my breath!
Cheers,
Andrew McMillan.