Forking proprietary code to BSD [closed]

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Let's say I have obtained permission from an employer to release a snapshot of a proprietary application to the public under a BSD license.

Is it possible to have a separate, independently developed fork of the code at this point in time released under a BSD license (or GPL I guess, not sure which yet), while the existing code will continue to be developed internally by the original company and will continue to be proprietary开发者_StackOverflow?

Are there any things to watch out for?

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Talk to a lawyer.

My understanding is that you retain your own copyright to do whatever you want with your copy. The license you release under is for other people, not you -- you don't lose your rights by offering an open-source variant.

There is a huge difference between BSD and GPL. BSD lets others do basically whatever they want with it. GPL is much more restrictive for the programmer, and more open to the end-user. Any project with GPL code, must itself be released under GPL. BSD lets programmers incorporate the code into proprietary closed-source projects.

But, don't listen to me on this -- check for yourself, and get the opinion of a lawyer.

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I agree on the "ask a lawyer" bit.

In general, releasing code both under a free software licence and a proprietary licence is fine, as the legally relevant bit is not what kind of licence sticker is attached to the code, but rather what was agreed on in the contract.

Releasing code under a BSD licence is actually offering a contract to whomever happens to stumble over the code that they may use the code under the terms of the BSD licence. Once people have accepted this offer (by downloading the code), the contract is sealed -- i.e. you cannot revoke the rights of someone who has already entered into that contract, however there is no obligation beyond the contract (i.e. they will not get access to newer versions, and you do not have an obligation to offer the same conditions in eternity).

The only place where the two licences can really conflict is when, by entering into a contract with these terms, one of the parties would have to violate another contract; the most obvious example would be if one of the licences grants exclusivity to the customer.

For the full details, I repeat that asking a lawyer is your only option; the most interesting question is usually whether the permission to use any patented technology is also transferred with the licence.

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The owner of the code can redistribute it under any license he pleases. So yes, you can distribute it under BSD and GPL and propietary at the same time.

You should be careful with contributions though. If a third party contributes a patch or something, then you're not the owner of THAT derivate code. If it's BSD, you can add it to your propietary branch (with the appropiate copyright notice). If it's GPL you can't.