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Comment by MrMike | Hacker News Reader

I typically tar it up and store it somewhere safe. On occasion, I'll work on a new project that could use a piece of code I know I've got stored away. Other times, it's something I stumble upon years later and laugh at myself for my coding style & quality, which continues to improve. "Omg I can't believe I tried to solve X that way... wow..."

I've seen a few people open source their code for failed projects. Hadn't really thought about that, but it's something I'll keep in mind should I have an interesting, failed project.

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How do the IP issues work out if you use code from your old startup at a new one? If the old legal entity remains, it still owns the code, if it's gone, then what happens? Are there clauses or things that can release the orphan code to a particular person or company or does it just become public domain since the owner is no longer? How does that work?

Certainly something to be conscious of. I should have made clear that for the most part, the code I'm talking about is from entities owned by myself and possibly one other person, a business partner I've worked with on multiple projects for many years. No outside investment or shareholders. This greatly simplifies the IP issues.

IANAL, but I use a pretty basic Asset Purchase Agreement between the old entity and the new to cover the IP. Again, since what I'm talking about is myself (and possibly one other person) as the shareholder, it's quite painless.

Thanks for the clarification, but legally you'll still need to assign the IP to your new entity?

By default, what happens to IP when the owning company ceases to exist?

Oops.. replied to this one level up. Sorry. In terms of the original company ceasing to exist, I'm not sure. Before dissolving, I do the Asset Purchase Agreement.

Yeah, I am not sure what the real value in open-sourcing the code would be because you can imagine how hard it would be trying to dig through a project that isn't designed like a library for re-use.

As jahmed said, it could be used as a learning experience. In other cases, it was a valiant (or not so) attempt at making something great, that didn't work out for a variety of reasons. Depending on the scenario, it might be something that I'd like someone else to pick up from and continue, to fulfill the "I want to use this." itch, but I don't have the time/resources to execute properly.

One persons trash. Functional but failed projects could be interesting learning material.

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