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Here's a solution: Copyright the code, put the copyright on all of the source files. Bury in there an API that returns your copyright if called in just the righ

by MCRed 11y ago

Here's a solution: Copyright the code, put the copyright on all of the source files. Bury in there an API that returns your copyright if called in just the right way (But don't tell anyone about this.) Write up a license to give the company you wrote the code for a limited license to use the code. Specify that they cannot sublicense the code to anyone else without prior permission but they can use it for their product/site you built it for. The license should explicitly say you reserve all rights. Then you can hand over the source. If this agency then takes that source and uses it elsewhere then they are violating the license. There's not much you can do to prevent this, but you can access the API described earlier to get your copyright notice from the code, so if they don't catch and remove it you can prove they are using your code. Getting a lawyer to write up such a contract would be convenient, but in absent of one you can write a license in plain terms setting out the agreement. Get the company you give the license to to sign it as part of turning over the source code. Lawyers are best for covering everything that could go wrong, but if you can't afford one, a written agreement will cost you nothing and offer at least some protection later. Of course, the best advice is always to get a lawyer. I'm not one, I could be missing something here.

gesman 11y ago
If they (likely) use some version control system - they can always revert to previous "non copyrighted version" to bypass this hurdle. But then this whole arrangement sounded like "work for hire" === "they own everything" which makes this suggestion not working anyways.
Someone1234 11y ago
> Here's a solution: Copyright the code, put the copyright on all of the source files. Uhh with all due respect I don't think you understand the legal concept of copyright. You're talking about a copyright NOTICE, copyright as a legal concept isn't decided by the notice, it is decided within a court of law by a judge (i.e. based on the evidence, of if the OP retained copyright or was hired to produce it on the client's behalf, thus the client would own the copyright). Adding a notice to the files after the fact is about as meaningful as running onto someone's lawn and planting a flag and claiming you own it. Now, if the notice had historically existed since the code was first given to the client you might be able to argue that the client implicitly accepted that as the agreement. But you cannot slap it on now and expect it to be meaningful. In general this is a matter of contract law.

by MCRed 11y ago

gesman 11y ago

If they (likely) use some version control system - they can always revert to previous "non copyrighted version" to bypass this hurdle. But then this whole arrangement sounded like "work for hire" === "they own everything" which makes this suggestion not working anyways.

Someone1234 11y ago

> Here's a solution: Copyright the code, put the copyright on all of the source files. Uhh with all due respect I don't think you understand the legal concept of copyright. You're talking about a copyright NOTICE, copyright as a legal concept isn't decided by the notice, it is decided within a court of law by a judge (i.e. based on the evidence, of if the OP retained copyright or was hired to produce it on the client's behalf, thus the client would own the copyright). Adding a notice to the files after the fact is about as meaningful as running onto someone's lawn and planting a flag and claiming you own it. Now, if the notice had historically existed since the code was first given to the client you might be able to argue that the client implicitly accepted that as the agreement. But you cannot slap it on now and expect it to be meaningful. In general this is a matter of contract law.