How to handle/license/charge for custom code in an open source project.

I have an open source project that's published under the Affero General Public License. Someone has recently contacted me about doing some modifications / feature additions to it for another client of theirs. They're basically contracting me to do their work since I know the sytem (obviously).

My question (and theirs) is regarding how or if this custom code will make it into the public distribution. Once we reach an agreement / understanding, then I can put that in the contract to do their work. Or does the license trump all and the code _has_ to be included? I'm not a lawyer or expert on this, obviously.

The way I see it, they are paying me to focus on a modification to a certain area that would have eventually made it into the public distro anyhow. By paying me, they're ensuring that this feature gets priority. So I'd like the new code to be included with the next version. I could see giving them a month or something (debatable) before I release the next version, though.

I'm sure that they'd love it if the feature didn't make it into the public version for quite a while and/or they retained rights to it (so they can give/sell/make other clients, etc). Not sure how the license plays into this idea, though.

So, looking for any advice ya'll can offer. After reading the license (very similar to GPL), what do you think is required / optional?

Thanks.

---John Holmes...

FWIW,


Charge a yearly/one off fee for warranty protection for your module, and ensure the client is willing to pay it before starting work on the code



Write a module that interacts with a public API, that you may or may not have to write, in order to facilitate the interface, OR depends on the functionality, and whether it can be scoped to operate outside the main application, such as business logic in an independent reporting/MIS module

Just my €0.02
--Ax

At first reading, I thought you said you wrote this open source project, which in my mind would enable you to do as you please with it. But after re-reading, I'm assuming you did not create the project but are familiar with it.

I agree with Axweildr's second quote. It seems to me that you are indeed doing some separate, and therefore these conditions and terms do not apply. Although this could greatly vary based apon what changes you are actually planning to implement.

Moved from the Lounge, since this is a question concerninc copyright law and/or distribution terms...