May I sell the copyright to my code?

Question

I've built a search engine. It has its own query language, data structures and binary file formats, it's MIT licensed and it has around 60 forks. Nobody uses it though, even though it has been around for some years but it was just until recently that I managed to solve the very last of the most crucial of bugs, so I don't find that surprising at all.It works well now, though, for a Wikipedia sized text based corpus, even though it's still in beta and contains code that can still be optimized. However, before I want to go any further with the project, I'd like to see if I can sell it, the copyright to my code, that is. Because maybe I want to be in the business of creating smart code, then sell it, then move on to the next thing? And maybe some company would like to have a search engine in their software portfolio? Suppose we meet, have a drink, see what happens.Do I have the rights to sell it, though?I'm the author of 99.999% of the commits.https://github.com/kreeben/resin

JoeyBananas · Accepted Answer

IANAL but I'm highly confident that you have the rights to sell the software. You also have the right to sell any other MIT licensed software, even if you are not the author.If there is any doubt about whether you have the rights to sell _the copyright_ specifically, here's what I'd do: Fork it, change the name, and sell the copyright to that.

smoldesu · Answer

Don't sell a copyright, draft up a support package instead and sell it to corporate/for-profit users. Much more straightforward and flexible, IMO.