Concerns about releasing a project as Open Source

Question

Community Wiki

I've been working on a fairly large project www.wikipediamaze.com and I initially intended for it to be open source, but as I get closer and closer to "done" I'm getting more and more nervous about releasing the code.

Initially I had hoped to use the project as sort of a "resume", if you will, as well as a learning tool for myself and others that I could blog about. And of course making a buck or two off of ads wouldn't be a bad thing either.

However, after dedicating my life to it for the last few months I'm really concerned about releasing the product as open source before I've reached "Critical Mass". Do I really want to risk putting it out there for someone to rip off the code and put up a competing product that does a better job of SEO and pretty much runs me out of the market? Is there anything I can do to protect myself from this aside from not releasing the code?

There are already competing products out there, but I've put a slightly different spin on it that I think will help make it successful. I'm just afraid I will shoot myself in the foot by releasing it to early.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

BTW the project was built using ASP.Net MVC, C#, Fluent NHibernate and Linq 2 NHibernate, Sql Server 2008, RPX Now (open id / OAuth), and twitter amongst other things.

Answer 1

If you do consider releasing it as Open Source, you probably will want to go with a GNU public license. That will drive away most corporations from using the code and anyone who uses your code will also have to use the GPL, so you can always integrate what they've done into your product.

That said, you should still consider registering for a copyright. That way anyone (like a potential employer) who asks "Is this really your code" will be able to receive proof that yes, it really is your code.

Answer 2

I would definitely suggest going open source. People are going to copy your features whether you release the code or not.

If you do open source it, I would suggest using the AGPL (Affero GPL). This will prevent people from taking the code, making modifications and not releasing the code by not distributing it and just running it on there own servers.

By the way, cool site. It's sort of like WikiFighting though.

Answer 3

Michael,

In my opinion these are the reasons that you might open source a project:

1. The project is a light version. You offer the pro version for a fee on your site.
2. The project can be used as a library in someone else project. You want to show good will towards other developers.
3. The project uses cutting edge technology and you want other developers to learn from what you are doing.
4. You want to do top of mind marketing. By making something open source and distributing through codeplex and robosoft; it might bring people to your site to click on ads.
5. You are single and have a lot of time on your hands. You want to support your open source product and add features because you are very bored.
6. The project is based on several open source projects and the licensing prevents you from releasing it as a commercial product.

With those tenants above, I think that unless 3, 4, or 5 apply I would release it as a commercial.