&gt; <i>This is the world of music publishing — a world where you can write a song, sell the rights to that song, then have to pay royalties to perform that song (which you wrote), and then potentially get sued if you write another song that sounds too similar to that first song you wrote.</i><p>This is the world of software development--a world where you can write some code for someone else who owns the copyright (such as your employer), and the have to license it to use it, and potentially get sued if you write and release nearly identical code.