I’m curious if anyone has any experience selling source code. Not so much freelancing, but just selling code you’ve already written.

I’m living in medium to high cost of living area in the USA. I’m sick of the full-time employment - layoff - job hunt - full-time employment cycle. I don’t see the employer / employee relationship getting any better.

Looking for other ideas.

  • Zikeji@programming.devEnglish
    14·
    9 months ago

    Licensing code is a pain and realistically you need to consult a lawyer who specializes in the area.

    When I do freelance work I sell them the code and a perpetual use license that allows them to do pretty much anything outside of selling the code. If they want to own the code itself that’s extra. But I also haven’t consulted a lawyer either and I’ve only done that sort of transaction twice.

  • sosodev@lemmy.world
    41·
    9 months ago

    As in via a product? Code itself isn’t worth much. It’s the stuff we make with it that has value.

    • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      9 months ago

      Kind of. I saw there were marketplaces like Xpiece, GitMarket, etc popping up and I’m wondering if anyone tried those or something like it. They don’t seem to be exactly branded as ‘template marketplaces’ like a lot of the old source code sites were, but maybe there’s no difference.

  • Big P@feddit.ukEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    I sold source code to someone once. They approached me about something I had made and offered to buy the source code with some modifications.

    • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.worksOP
      3·
      9 months ago

      Thats pretty interesting. Do you mind telling us rough numbers on time spent building and sale price? Did you set out to make something you thought you could sell or just end up selling it?

      • Big P@feddit.ukEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        I set out to make something that filled a specific need of mine but in a way that it would be easy to package up as a tool for other people meaning it was clean and well documented. Time spent is a little difficult as the majority of the work was research for a separate project that gave me the idea for this one. It was in the realm of weeks to build the end product and days to make their requested adjustments though. I believe the sale price was around $500 - $800. It also lead to doing other work for them in the same area which I think is the biggest gain when doing something like this