First of all I would like to apologize for my post here. However, I don't know where else to ask these questions.
For some of my projects, I use the SourceMonitor software from Campwood LLC. The author, Jim Wanner, is now retiring from software development. I have contacted him and he is willing to make SourceMonitor available as open source software. I am doing my best to assist him in achieving this goal.
There are currently three problems that I don't know how to solve:
- It is hard to find developers to join this project. I have contacted some (German) magazines to publish an article. I offered them to write an article about the reasons for using SourceMonitor and some points for future challenges of the software, but nothing happened. How to find interested developers for this project? I thought of posting on the LKML the question. Probably that's not the right place, though, not to mention how this community might respond.
- There are legal issues with licensed code and/or licensed products that have been used for the project so far. Maintaining this project is not easy as a result. In other words - there is a lot of work to do to get rid of the licensed code and tools used so far. The solution is the same as for the first point - there is a lack of dedicated developers. Where can you find some?
- The transfer of intellectual property is also a problem. The code was created by Jim and the copyrights are held by his company, Campwood Software LLC. He is willing to transfer the rights to the community. But that takes a lawyer - and kind of money. Jim found a lawyer and had a document drawn up. But I don't understand enough English to check it out. Especially whether it's appropriate for open source. I did some research on Google, but the results are meager. I have asked the FSFE for legal assistance and am waiting for a response. Additionally, I have contacted a few other lawyers - but they don't want to do the job. How to find lawyers who are knowledgeable about this type of issue? How to solve the problems with the costs?
I appreciate any advice and suggestions to help achieve the goal of an open source SourceMonitor project. Are there any people here who have experience with something like this?