Re: CDNs should pay eyeball networks, too.

[William Herrin <bill () herrin us>]

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 6:03 PM, David Miller <dmiller () tiggee com> wrote:
> From an accounting perspective, every R&D effort that I have seen or
> been a part of was not billed to any customer.  R&D has always, in my
> experience, been an internal charge against a company's own profits.

Hi David,

That's called "internal" research and development or "IR&D".

It's distinguished from research and prototyping as an exploratory
effort under contract to a customer. For example, all grants under
organizations like NSF, ONR or DARPA the latter type of R&D. They want
to know if something is possible so they pay knowledge domain experts
to find out. Or more commonly, the experts submit a proposal that
says, "We think this is possible. It would be very good for you if it
is. Won't you please pay us to find out?"


> As to hourly software development, I have never seen or been a part of a
> software development effort where the final work product was not owned
> by the entity paying for the hourly development.  The contract software
> developer can't sell the same software twice because they don't own it
> to sell it twice.

That depends on the contract. By law, the folks who wrote the software
(or the company who paid their salaries) own it. By law, contract !=
salary. Some contracts specify that the copyrights and other IP will
be signed over upon completion. With most of the contracts I've
worked, the customer doesn't get the copyright, but I make no claim
that's typical.

Regards,
Bill Herrin



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William D. Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com  bill () herrin us
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