[consulting] drupal consulting and agreements

[Laura Scott]

Good advice from Larry and Dave, imho, tho ianal either.

What I know from US law: Any contract that involves transfer of 
copyright requires *signed* documents saying so. Everything else can 
pretty much go via email and whether the check clears. ;)

The Graphic Artists' Guild advises that you retain copyright on any 
custom work you do, and license it to the client -- in perpetuity even, 
but retain the copyright. Make it clear you reserve the right to use the 
work you do elsewhere, and how -- e.g., for promotional purposes (like 
your portfolio). I always provide a link to the GPL regarding the Drupal 
code, and make it clear to them that they will own it (which I feel is a 
selling point of FOSS, as proprietary code they typically do not get to 
own at all).

And be clear that THIS IS NOT A WORK FOR HIRE. That can get into sticky 
issues, at least in the US. The distinction between employee and 
consultant can ride on that line.

In the end, I go with the conventional wisdom: It depends on the persons 
involved. If you can trust each other, the agreement can be over a 
handshake. If you don't trust each other, then you could write a 
contract the size of the phone book and you still won't be secure.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with the project!

Laura


Fabio Varesano wrote:
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> Hi everybody.
>
> I'm going to start a drupal consulting project and I'm currently
> writing an agreement between me and my client.
>
> This is my first big drupal based consulting project.
> I'm not really experienced on writing agreements becouse
> I worked only as employeed on a web agency.
> This is my first free-lace consulting agreement.
>
> Every kind of advices or examples on this are really appreciated.
>
> In particular: do you usally give some EULA (End User Licence Agreement)?
>
> And if I want to share the developed modules or features
> with the community (releasing as GPL) what do I have to do?
>
> Thanks a lot
>
> Cheers.
>
> Fabio Varesano      Italy
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