Stormy Peters has a list of things you can ask for during job negotiations. It’s a good list, and the item on it that really caught my eye was this:
Intellectual property rights. I know several people who negotiated an offer where they would own the copyright to everything they wrote even when writing code for their employer.
If you hack for freedom, getting your employer on board can be a huge piece of the puzzle. And there’s no better time to do it than at the beginning. You never have more leverage than before you accept the offer, and more to the point, it’s important to set expectations early.
At some point after your prospective employer dangles the job and before you’ve accepted, talk about your passion for Free Software. Let them know you would like to free your work as much as possible. Get them to agree to find ways to do it and to justify the times when they refuse. Offer to make GPL-compliance part of your job. Be nice about it, but be firm. It’s amazing what a difference you can make in this manner.
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