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Comment by patrickgzill | Hacker News Reader

If the issue is "copyright" the author retains all interest in the copyrighted work unless a specific form is signed; there is no other way to assign copyright.

You should be easily able to ask for and receive copies of anything you signed when you first came to University.

Personally I would not worry about it, just go ahead. Further don't bug faculty about it, it will only raise red flags.

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The problem is that if the OP's startup is a success then the University will come after him for what they perceive as his abuse of their property. Also if he has external investors unless he has disclosed this problem to them they could well sue him personally - I've been threated by legal action by an unhappy VC and that was also deeply unpleasant.

If I was the OP I would walk away from his code - don't even take a copy of it. I would check with an IP lawyer what measures I would have to take to produce a "clean" copy that the University has no claim over and base whatever I did on that recommendation. At least if you do things that way you have some comeback against the lawyers.

I have no code written currently, and have only met with my adviser to have him sign off on his agreement to oversee the project. I'll probably go the route of getting the school to sign off on something saying, basically "I won't use your stuff, you don't have to do anything for me, just don't sue me later".

If they won't do that, I might have to change my project to use another web app-type idea that I consider less viable as a business but could teach me a lot about web development. I hope that's not the case, as currently I'd be earning 3 credits to build my dream project and if I can retain all IP I'd be golden.

It is a tricky one - a sensible organisation would wish you the best of luck and hope that your eventual success reflects well on them. However dealing with any large bureacracy means that finding someone who will sign off on such a thing can be tricky!

Yeah, agreed. I've found the contact information for the person in charge of our tech transfer office (called the Office of Technology Management... I assume they're basically the same thing). I'll wait to hear back from my department head and probably contact someone in OTM (whoever is appropriate) afterward.

This might be history in the making, as I potentially might have to pitch why my idea is NOT viable enough for them to care (inverse VC pitch, lol).

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