When in doubt, the person with the money makes the rules!
Almost every contracting agreement I've worked on had something
similar. In recent years, we've negotiated re-use, sometimes combined
with a non-compete ( AJKA we can't build the same exact app for a
different client). But, that negotiation is with business owners who
need applications; not consulting companies who need code. As DotComIt
evoles, we are being more particular about what we give away.
On the plus side, with such an agreement you are not going to use any
of your "library code" and must build everything from scratch. On a
billable hour basis that can be nice.
One associate of mine was told by his lawyers that he had no write to
any code written by consultants no matter what the agreement; and could
never prevent that consultant from re-using such things. For the
company to own it the developers must be employees. I have since ran
this issue against 2 separate lawyers who led me to believe that the
company would own all work in a "work made for hire" agreement.
I don't think this is an OOP issue. In theory that client can re-use
he code in other client projects. However, despite efforts of many
developers, I've found that most code is not built "flexible" enough to
be shared between multiple disparate projects.
There is a mailing list at houseoffusion.com called cf-jobs-talk which
is designed for issues exactly like this. Often there are lively
conversations around such issues.
Amy 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
--
Jeffry Houser
Flex, ColdFusion, AIR
AIM: Reboog711 | Phone: 1-203-379-0773
--
Adobe Community Expert
<http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/members/JeffryHouser.html>
My Company: <http://www.dot-com-it.com>
My Podcast: <http://www.theflexshow.com>
My Blog: <http://www.jeffryhouser.com>
