I know of a potential customer that has been paying for website development work on an hourly basis for several years by several independent contractors, but has never signed an agreement as to terms or ownership for it. They just get a bill and pay it.
So, does this mean that there is implied ownership by the developer(s) who wrote the software and I can’t modify the code without something in writing? Who owns the source code in this case as there are two other developers that worked on it?
By the way, I’m a developer in the USA, working in Missouri.
I did find this useful link that confirmed some suspicions I had about copywrite ownership of software. They also have a free IP(intellectual property) ebook download. No registration required either.
Disclaimer: I understand that any answers are not to be construed as legal advise perse, but I’m wondering if someone else has run into this issue and knows by firsthand experience.
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I’m not sure how it is in other countries, but here are some notes for US Copyright Law. I will prefix this with the inferred “I Am Not a Lawyer”
As an independent contractor, by default you own the copyright to anything you create. Unless you explicitly transferred the copyright to another party, you retain those rights…including the right to sell the work product you contracted to create for another party.
Many people believe stating that the software was written as work for hire is enough, but it’s not. You still have to explicitly have the contractor transfer over the copyright
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