Re: My client wants the source code
- From: "Dan Barclay" <Dan@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 21:46:34 -0600
Jeffrey,
I don't disagree with what you say. My point was to describe the difference
between work you own and work that was done for someone else as a hired
hand.
My own advice is to have a written agreement that spells it out. The advice
I've had before is that if you act like an employee, your work will be
treated like an employee's work. Ownership will be with the employer that
was telling you what to do (as they would their own programmer) and paying
you like they'd pay their own programmer. IF you go to civil court anything
can happen, as you know.
I've hired out work, and done it in a way that I'd have worked it with an
employee. I *still* had the ownership spelled out in plain English.
Agreements are the key. Here's one I recently discussed with another
friend... he's being hired to *revise* a program already owned by another
company. In doing that he's going to be using some library code of his own
rather than write everything he needs from scratch. Hmmmm....
To use anything other than an agreement is to put yourself at risk of jury
interpretation, which depends mostly on who has the better story.
Dan
"Jeffrey Miller" <jeffmillerSPAMNOT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:43e3d8b5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Dan Barclay" <Dan@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43e3b5c4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gaspar,
1. If the job was a "work for hire" where the customer paid you by the
hour to write code, and told you what the applciation should do, the
customer owns the code and the copyright.
2. If you wrote the application, perhaps with a lot of input from them
but written on your own, then sold them the application license (cost
unrelated to how much time you spent on it) then you own the code.
Don't take the above to court... get a lawyer. More importantly, consult
with an Argentinian lawyer!
(b) I Am Not A Lawyer
IANAL, but if my understading of copyright law is correct, your info is
not
correct in the US.
As far as I can tell, hourly payment has no bearing on copyright. Being
told *what the application should do* has little bearing.
It comes down to: 1. are you an employee, 2. could you be legally
*deemed*
an employee, 3. Are you working on a small part of a larger work, 4. Is it
a
*Work for Hire*.
For a project to be considered a *Work for Hire*, their has to be a signed
agreement specifying exactly that.
Here's the real info: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf
Here's an old thread on the same topic, Herbert Sitz (lawyer) is the
expert:
http://tinyurl.com/7k4au
Here's general copyright stuff:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wccc
.
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