hamish@waikato.ac.nz (05/20/91)
In article <tmasune.0853@telstr.UUCP>, tmasune@telstr.UUCP (Ted Masune) writes: > I have a question for all you prgrammers out their that sell > your customized programs to businesses. I was contracted > verbally to a business to do some customized programming for > two of their applications. The programs basically let you > enter data, process it and print the results to a printer or > file. They were completely satisfied with the program. > After a few more adjustments to the programs, they paid me my > fee and I was on my way. It has been almost a year now. > They have now asked me to give them the source code for the > programs. I told them that it would be an additional cost. > They told me that I owed it to them at no cost. I know have > found out that they are franchising their business and intend > to sell the programs to the franchises. I told them that > they should pay me royalties for the programs. They said no > I don't think so. What should I do? What am I legally > obligated to them. In my mind I don't beleive that I was > contracted to give them the source and I think I should be > entitled to royalities. Any help on the subject would be > greatly appreciated. Thanks > > > Internet : sharkey.cc.umich.edu!wybbs!telstr!tmasune > CompuServe : 73617,344 What country are you in? As far as I know, unless there was a written agreement for the contractor (ie them) to own the programs, then you own all source and they simply use your program. Stick to your guns. I also believe this very question was thrashed on the net about a year ago, but I can't remember the whole outcome. Does anybody know any different? -- ============================================================================== | Hamish Marson <h.marson@waikato.ac.nz> | | Computer Support Person, Computer Science Department | | University of Waikato | |Disclaimer: Anything said in this message is the personal opinion of the | | finger hitting the keyboard & doesn't represent my employers | | opinion in any way. (ie we probably don't agree) | ==============================================================================
dougs@tvnews.tv.tek.com (Doug Stevens;6272540;58-594;2283061) (05/21/91)
Your legal obligations are spelled out by any written contract between you and the firm, or by any oral contract witnessed by a third party (the oral contract is much harder to enforce). I doubt that this firm has much of a chance against you. The lack of a written contract works in your favor in the case of the source license. The fact that they have let such a long time lapse before asking for the source would indicate that they believed they received at delivery time everything for which they had orally contracted. The lack of a written contract works against you in the case of subsidiary licensing, because you have no documentation that there was an agreement to restrict such licensing. The point: when you do business, make sure that there is a legal written contract. If you have any doubt about what constitutes a legal contract, hire a lawyer; it's worth it in the long run. Even in this case, with no written contract, you will need a lawyer to know your legal obligations; the difference is that his job is much tougher without the contract.
jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay) (05/21/91)
stuff deleted about custom software obligations. I have not seen the original posting, but a better place to post would be misc.jobs.contract if your sight gets it. The people there are informed and willing to share. john gay. -- john gay. jgay@digi.lonestar.org My Vote for Best Band Name:
martin@mjs486.uucp (Martin J. Schedlbauer) (05/23/91)
In article <1991May18.224337.17787@ccad.uiowa.edu> cadsi@ccad.uiowa.edu (CADSI) writes: >From article <tmasune.0853@telstr.UUCP>, by tmasune@telstr.UUCP (Ted Masune): >> I have a question for all you prgrammers out their that sell >> your customized programs to businesses. I was contracted >> verbally to a business to do some customized programming for > >You only need look at your contract with your customer. If the deliverables >were source code, then you diliver source. If your deliverables are >executable modules, thats what they get. It is probably not clear what >your deliverables were and your customer wants to get what they can. >Indeed, you should have copyright'ed your source code. If the code is >your copyright, it is yours and you do with it as you please, they don't. > You typically trade all rights to your code when you get paid. Of course, royalties and source code ownership must be negotiated up front and put into contractual form. If you write software under contract then the copyright is typically owned by the company who hired you, UNLESS specified different up front. ...Martin -- ============================================================================== Martin J. Schedlbauer | martin@mjs486.UUCP | ...!ulowell!mjs486!martin 8 Gilman Road | mschedlb@ulowell.edu | ...!uunet!wang!mjs486!martin Billerica, MA 01862 USA | CIS: 76675, 3364 | Voice/Fax: (508) 670-2169