On January 28, 2009 at 00:29, tsvisser said...
I think there is absolutely no question, a programmer
that is employed by a company is working for that company
and 100% of what is coded is property of the company.
To take that code and use it outside of company use would
in fact be theft. Obviously the contents of someone's
head is property of that person, so having gained expertise
in programming is not owned by the company, but physical
or electronic property that was developed is not the property
of the employee.
I am not a custom installer, but I am a programmer who deals with signing corp-to-corp, sub-contractor, W2 contracts all the time. Here is a direct excerpt of a contract I have...
Article 5 - Ownership of Developments
5.1????? and Contractor agree that all codes, developments, designs, discoveries, ideas, improvements, processes, programs, systems, trademarks, service marks, writings, creations, enhancements, improvements or other inventions, whatsoever, which have been or shall be made, developed, conceived or reduced to practice or writing by Contractor, either alone or with others, (i) at any time during Contractor's engagement by ????? or (ii) within one year following the termination or completion of such engagement, whichever is later, and other things or materials developed by Contractor in fulfillment of the Services (Inventions) shall be considered to be "works made for hire," and that they and the patents, copyrights, trade secrets and other intangible property rights therein shall become the sole and exclusive property of ?????, subject to ?????'s obligations to Company under the Contract, if they are part of, relate to or are usable with:
(a)the Services;
(b)Contractor's engagement by ?????;
(c)any work or development project then being undertaken by ????? or Company;
(d)the business and affairs of ????? or Company;
(e)embody Confidential Information of ????? or Company
(f)any process, apparatus or article useful in the development, manufacture, testing or operation paragraphs (a) through (e).
I agree with most that this is a legal matter and you should consult an attorney. In every contract I sign, ownership of what I create is CLEARLY defined. You can call it code, modules, one line of code, executables... it doesn't matter, in the case above, it all belongs to the client.
I have in the past done business as a partnership where both the client and I own what is created and each of us can do what we wanted to do with it. In this case, a client is usually trying to get my services at a discount knowing that I will also make money on reselling what I created.
The problem sounds like contract agreements that do not clearly define ownership. It can be written both ways, 1. where the clients owns what you created while employed by them or 2. the client merely licenses the software you wrote for him to use. Whichever side of the fence you belong on, your contract should clearly define the terms.
If you are using pre-written modules that you coded well before employment of said client, I would make sure that any contract you sign clearly states that you retain ownership of your modules used.
