Also it made me think about the converse, which might be interesting - libre software. Assuming a company has no plans of dual-licensing, ownership of the actual copyright of libre software is independent of how that software gets used to generate income. Anyone else could come along and use a copy of the software to create a business without any license payments to the owner. Or alternatively the original company could donate said software to a nonprofit steward (eg FSF or Apache) and be in a similar position. So accounting wise, it would seem that amounts spent on developing libre software could be more appropriately classified along with things like recruiting, advertising expenses, or even charitable donations, rather than the creation of an income-producing asset.
Setting up that software to work on the company's production infrastructure would still be a development expense requiring amortization. But the work to keep it running would still be maintenance.
Also it made me think about the converse, which might be interesting - libre software. Assuming a company has no plans of dual-licensing, ownership of the actual copyright of libre software is independent of how that software gets used to generate income. Anyone else could come along and use a copy of the software to create a business without any license payments to the owner. Or alternatively the original company could donate said software to a nonprofit steward (eg FSF or Apache) and be in a similar position. So accounting wise, it would seem that amounts spent on developing libre software could be more appropriately classified along with things like recruiting, advertising expenses, or even charitable donations, rather than the creation of an income-producing asset.
Setting up that software to work on the company's production infrastructure would still be a development expense requiring amortization. But the work to keep it running would still be maintenance.