www.nolo.com has the following about Independent Contractors (IC):
What about intellectual property ownership?
When you hire an IC to create a work of authorship such as a computer
program, written work, artwork, musical work, photographs or multimedia
work, you need to be concerned with copyright ownership.
The copyright laws contain a major trap for the unwary -- they say that
unless the work an IC creates falls into one of nine categories, the hiring
firm will not own the copyright to the IC's work unless it obtains a
written assignment of copyright ownership. An assignment is simply a
transfer of copyright ownership. It should be obtained before an IC starts
work. This assignment should be included in the IC agreement.
Certain specially commissioned or ordered works by ICs are considered to be
works for hire to which the hiring firm automatically owns all copyright
rights. However, both you and the IC must both sign an written agreement
stating that the work is made for hire. Again, this should be included in
the IC agreement.
These works include:
� a contribution to a collective work -- for example, a work created
by more than one author, such as a newspaper, magazine, anthology or
encyclopedia
� a part of an audiovisual work -- for example, a motion picture
screenplay
� a translation
� supplementary works -- for example, forewords, afterwords,
supplemental pictorial illustrations, maps, chats, editorial notes,
bibliographies, appendixes and indexes
� a compilation -- for example, an electronic database
� an instructional text
� a test
� answer material for a test, and
� an atlas.
At 10:46 AM 1/20/01 -0800, you wrote:
>This is a bit OT, but I'd appreciate your opinions on this one.
>
>Lets take an example where the project documentation and contractual
>documents were sparse and no where was there mention of ownership of
>code. In a case like this, who owns the code? Does the client own all of
>the source files, or should they receive an encrypted version of the code
>(still portable to a server of the clients choice).
>
>If they are entitled to the source code and the flexibility to choose
>another development firm to take over the job, what is stopping the client
>and/or the new developers to resell all or components of that code?
>
>What do you think? Of course, the best way to avoid any gray areas and
>messy situations is always with thick documentation which is well
>understood by both parties. But what if this documentation is not in place,
>what are the default params?
>
>Also what is the best way to incorporate these issues into a contract. Let
>the client know up front that it would costs more to retain ownership of
>the code?
>
>Thanx for your opinions.
>
>Merry Christmas
>
>Brook Davies
>maracasmedia Inc.
>
>
>
>
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