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by yuriks 3258 days ago
You have the option of having Google own the code, and in return you can work on it using Google hardware, work on it while at work, use other google code or discuss it with your coworkers freely.

Or you can ask to retain ownership of your project, but then you don't get to do any of the above. This option is also sometimes (thanks DannyBee for correcting me) not available if your project is considered to be too similar to some critical Google interest. The basic idea is outlined here: https://opensource.google.com/docs/iarc/
1 comments
DannyBee 3258 days ago
"This option is also not available if your project is considered to be too similar to something Google's working on (due to obvious IP issues.)"

Speaking as an IARC committee member, this is not quite correct. We have in fact, approved plenty of stuff that is close to what google is working on. For example, we've approved plenty of search engines. (The overall approval rate is >96% last i looked).

It's not so simple that i can easily draw principled bright lines for you though :)

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shallot_router 3258 days ago
Out of curiosity, what are the kinds of projects that IARC won't approve?
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DannyBee 3258 days ago
An example would be those where the person is really trying to get the IP to create a separate company that competes with Google in some area, and then quit. Yes, this happens. It's not even that we care or don't care in that case, we are just literally the wrong forum.
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