On Friday 12 January 2007 08:21, Jon Baer wrote: > There is an even harder part to this topic ... things that I have > written have always stayed w/ the client and even when I was not > freelance it was still really 'work for hire' ... *but* you can work > yourself into a bind because some larger media companies (like a > Viacom) will have really strict guidelines and when you spend say 2-3 > years working on backend CMS/Flash applications its hard to show your > work when trying for another gig. The real gem other companies seem > to want to see is nice/clean "reusable" OO code, which is just that, > "reused" from your previous experience. Every developer has their > own toolkit filled w/ libraries that do the job they are asked or > they end up on PEAR, Zend, etc and reuse something else. In open > source I find it extremely hard to find things which another company > can rightfully claim as the "owner".
Exactly hit the target. In open source world there is common understanding that whatever I do for you (company, client) is yours and you have copyright of it excluding the *skills* that I have used to create it. This clearly stats that as long as I have these *skills* I can create similar kind of code which is not part of that copyright code. So I assume, situation is mostly in hands of author who designs that code. > > It's probably more of an advantage to ask a company what their > license really is and if they don't have one, go to http:// > www.opensource.org/licenses/ and pick one or come up with one > *before* starting so you know where you stand. > > Good topic/discussion though. > > - Jon > > On Jan 11, 2007, at 6:48 PM, Dell Sala wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I have a client that has run into a conflict with a previous > > developer over the ownership of some php code, and it's brought up > > some pretty big questions for me. > > > > When I am under contract to develop some custom code for a client, > > who owns the code after it is finished? I expect the quick answer > > to be "It Depends". > > > > In the particular case I mentioned, my understanding is that there > > was no prior discussion of code ownership, or even a contract -- > > only a brief, home-made copyright statement embedded in the source > > code after it was completed. Can something like that really > > determine ownership in a legal context? > > > > My own position on this as a freelance developer (never really > > discussed or documented in contracts), has been that any code I > > write, or open source code that I install for a client belongs to > > the client -- as long as I can reuse the same code that I write for > > other projects and clients. Thats a pretty loose position, but my > > relationship with clients has always been good and I haven't run > > into any trouble so far. Am I, or my clients as risk here somehow? > > > > What do the rest of you do? I'd be particularly interested in > > hearing from other freelance developers. Any good resources out > > there for learning about code ownership and licensing issues? > > > > -- Dell > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List > > http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk > > > > NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online > > http://www.nyphpcon.com > > > > Show Your Participation in New York PHP > > http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php > > _______________________________________________ > New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List > http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk > > NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online > http://www.nyphpcon.com > > Show Your Participation in New York PHP > http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php -- Anirudh Zala (Building standards) _______________________________________________ New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online http://www.nyphpcon.com Show Your Participation in New York PHP http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
