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Comment by bbuffone | Hacker News Reader

I would publicly open source the code, placing it in either Google Code or Github with a BSD or Apache 2.0 license. Doing this will protect both you and the university from using random (though your) unlicensed code in the project.

Placing the code in Guthub or Google Code will make it much easier to validate that it is truly open source and will allow the next developer on the project to download the latest updates.

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That's what I would do, too, but also verify with the employer over the summer that he is fine with open source code to be integrated into the project.

Also it might happen that while integrating it, improvements to the open source code come to mind. Then it should be clear from the start if it would be OK to feed improvements created during employed time back into the open source project.

I agree and I would also check the contract for an "Entire Agreement" clause which basically says that side agreements, whether verbal or written, are not considered part of the agreement.

I would agree with also checking with the employer. Any time you want to utilize open source in a project you should see what the employers policies are on this.

You will also need to be careful about contributions back to your open source stuff. This is one of the areas that open source foundations have done really well. The dojo and Apache foundations as an example have you fill out a contributors agreement to ensure the IP of any code that is submitted to them is "clean".

This actually might not help you if you've run afoul of your IP agreement; just because you've released something GPL doesn't mean you've renounced your copyright on it. See: the various companies that have dual-licensed commercial/open software.

I would caution against listening to this as I highly doubt it has any basis in law.

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