At 07/26/2001 12:20 PM, you wrote:

>Dear List:
>
>Please forgive me for another OT post, but this has come up, and I
>think a few of you might have an answer. It's for those who are
>independant developers and contractors.
>
>If a client asked you to assign them all rights, first off would you?

Usually not. And, it's specified in the contract to make things
clearer. And if there were modifications made to code by someone else, and
we have to clean up that code, we charge them more than the agreed extra
charge and this is written in the contract as well. Whatever you do, make
sure you have a written contract with your client at all times and make
necessary modifications to it as needed and that both parties agree to them.

>If you did, would you bill them extra for those rights, and how do
>you determine how much to charge, a percentage of the project cost, a
>flat fee per right, or a flat fee for all rights.
>
>How much would you charge them. Please feel free to reply to me
>privately if you wish.

It depends how much the client is willing to pay. We usually charge extra
for something like this and we REALLY don't give it away. We put a price
tag that's high enough that usually the client changes their mind. I know
one reason a client might ask for this, is that they intend to sell the
software and don't want to give you royalties(this did occurred to us and
until now it's the only reason). At the moment we are in negotiation with
a distributor that wants their logo and name appearing on the software
instead of ours, but the copyright notices are still going to show our name
as we own the copyright.

Just to let you know that I myself am under contract with a company that
does contract work. Although, the code that I write for them belongs to
them, as per contract, I am considered a partner in the company and not
just an independent developer.

One book that I would highly recommend is "Software Development: A Legal
Guide". This book will give you a lot of insights regarding the legal
aspects of copyrights and trademarks.

Hope this helps.


Daniel Rail
Senior System Engineer
ACCRA Group Inc. (www.accra.ca)
ACCRA Med Software Inc. (www.filopto.com)