> 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.

Well that covers me.

> If a client asked you to assign them all rights, first off would you?

One word answer - NO.
The long answer - while I could give them their source for their set of
programs ( and I always send a zipped copy with every build ), I am not
licenced to supply IBO and other packages, so they would have to cover all
that themselves. Basically they are getting free time that I have spent doing
the donkey work previously, and the small part designed specifically for them
is of little use without the rest of the software environment. This is
usually enough to put them off as it will cost money that they are trying to
save by using an outside developer in the first place.

> 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.

After explaining the problems that they will have by not using me to do any
upgrades and the additional licences from other sources they have always
accepted that the rights to the code remain with me. I will not restrict
their use of the code, but I see regular income from the 'little changes'
that they need, and it costs them a lot less.

One site did spend time and money setting up a duplicate development
environment, but then they found that they had no one who could understand
what was going on internally, and it is sitting idle - I use it rather than
taking the laptop there.

If they want to own the product they need to develop it in house - end of
story.

I follow the same rules for hardware development as well. They usually only
have an outline idea of what is required, and you have to fill the gaps so a
lot of the product ends up being your invention, rather than theirs.

--
Lester Caine
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services