Re:Ask HN: I've had some software developed, now the coder i...
by com on Saturday March 21, 2009 @02:15PM
(#526382)
What precisely is transferred depends on the contract and the legal jurisdiction.
I have some clients that were gypped for a lot more than USD2.5k - they thought they were getting the IP and instead they were getting a non-transferable license to use (and the software was buggy and had - appallingly - developer backdoors and remote off-switches).
Explicit terms in contracts is a very smart move; don't assume anything about what the local version of contract and tort law will deliver to you.
Of course, off-shored development makes it all a bit more complicated - which party actually holds source code and can be sued? It's a bit of a mine-field.
I have some clients that were gypped for a lot more than USD2.5k - they thought they were getting the IP and instead they were getting a non-transferable license to use (and the software was buggy and had - appallingly - developer backdoors and remote off-switches).
Explicit terms in contracts is a very smart move; don't assume anything about what the local version of contract and tort law will deliver to you.
Of course, off-shored development makes it all a bit more complicated - which party actually holds source code and can be sued? It's a bit of a mine-field.