On 21 Oct 2017 8:26 PM, "ToddAndMargo" <toddandma...@zoho.com <mailto:toddandma...@zoho.com>> wrote:On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 12:57 AM, ToddAndMargo <toddandma...@zoho.com <mailto:toddandma...@zoho.com> <mailto:toddandma...@zoho.com <mailto:toddandma...@zoho.com>>> wrote:On 10/21/2017 12:40 AM, ToddAndMargo wrote: If I write a program for a customer who pays my labor to write it, who own the program? Me or the customer? I am a private contractor. What they payed me for fixing a/the problem. They don't care how. I was wondering if they owned any of the code I wrote to fix the problem. The customer did not specifically ask me to write anything. On 10/21/2017 01:07 AM, Brent Laabs wrote: This depends on the contract you signed with the customer, and laws in your local jurisdiction. As such, it's probably a question more appropriate to ask a lawyer than this list. There is no contract involved. The customer wants a problem fixed. He does not want to know how. And he is not commissioning me for any software. Just a fix. I can not afford a lawyer.
On 10/21/2017 04:12 AM, Andrew Kirkpatrick wrote:
You'll need to read up on the laws in your area, but generally contracts have IP ownership clauses to ensure the employer ends up with it. Without a contract, it's seems likely there was no such transfer and you remain the owner.
I am thinking it is the same a hiring a gardener. He develops a tool to pull weeds while under your hire. He own the tool.
