Original author of project that a company abandoned
<p>I'm the original author of a project that was made on company time and resources. While waiting for this project to come to life it just died without any support on marketing it and not using it at all.</p>
<p>Now I'm wondering if I can use this as my own releasing it for proprietary purposes or as an open source project. Are there legal outcomes when in the case of the company taking it back as their own proprietary product?</p>
<p>I'm no longer an employee on said company.</p>

<p>Using it without permission is copyright infringement and illegal. </p>

<p>Legally, you can try offering money to the company for the copyright or for a suitable license. For example offer them $1000 for a copy of the code licensed under the GPL license. If they accept, you are fine. </p>

<h2>Consider a company car</h2>

<p>If they aren’t using it; is it ok for you to take it without permission? </p>

<p>Same principle applies to IP.</p>

copyright