[consulting] Copyright

[Dan Robinson]

IAMNAL - I believe that the "Work for hire/copyright" issue varies from 
jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  I'm pretty sure that California 
*prohibits* clients who hire non-employees (contractors) to do work from 
having their copyright re-assigned.

http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/copyrightlaws/a/ca-seo-copyrigh.htm

(note that the description of this says that the California law is a 
"Bad" law - that truth is in the eyes of the beholder (or 
copyrightholder as the case may be).

It is important to remember that Copyright, Licensing, and their 
relationship to "work for hire" rules three different things and are 
going to vary greatly depending on the jurisdiction.  How they work 
together will create different outcomes.  Most lawyers that deal with IP 
etc. should be able to answer basic questions in a split second that 
will apply to your particular circumstance.

It is also important to remember that employers will routinely write 
contracts that are clearly in violation of local laws in an attempt to 
intimidate and/or create legal hurdles for the counterparty to exercise 
their rights.  For example there are many contracts in California that 
claim to re-assign copyright even though it is not recognized under 
California law.

Dan
> Hi,
>
> When folks are doing contract work developing modules, is it typical 
> to retain copyright over code or to give copyright to the folks who 
> are contracting out to you? Do folks have legal contract language for 
> both scenarios?
>
> Peace, community, justice,
> - George
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