The company is buying the code that you write. They are not buying your time. They might pay you based on how long it takes you to write the code, but in the end all they care about is owning that code. If they pay you $10,000 to write code, and then you turn around to another company and bid on a similar project for $500 because you already wrote the code and you just use the same codebase, they're going to be rightly upset. Anything you store in your head is yours (lessons learned, techniques used, etc). But anything you write is theirs. That's just the way this world works.
I'm surprised at the previous response about not giving ownership of the code but instead only signing a non-compete. That's a pretty sweet deal if you can swing it, but I'd be really surprised if you found a large company that would go for that. For consulting projects I know that we sometimes ask for the IP of certain portions of code (ie things not specific to the project or general utility classes), but every time we do, we explicitly ask for exactly what IP we want to hold onto (and every time it is a huge legal hurdle). Whatever you do, be completely up-front from the beginning about what, if any, pieces of what you're writing is not the client's exclusive IP. Also be sure that you have an understanding about any open source code that you are using in a client's project. Sometimes clients can be very adamant about not allowing open source code of any kind, since they don't own the exclusive rights to that. But they often change their mind after you tell them how much money they will save if you don't have to reinvent what the open source community has already done. But it's important that you and the client have the same clear understanding about all this stuff. Doug On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 2:58 PM, wesley.petrowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I imagine this is the norm, unless there is something different with > Flex-specific shops. I think the general idea is they don't want to > pay people to write code, only to have them quit and take the stuff > they wrote to a competitor. You can still reuse your code, as long as > you do it for the same company. :) > > > --- In [email protected] <flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com>, "Amy" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I was recently asked to sign an agreement that would designate a Flex > > project as "Work for Hire." I.e. I would not retain any ownership of > > the code I wrote for the project. This seems to defeat the purpose > of > > OOP, if I create a whole body of code that I can't then reuse. How > do > > most Flex developers handle the idea of Work for Hire? > > > > Thanks; > > > > Amy > > > > >
