hack's owning Q

[totem]

Hi,
I plan to hier a coder as a freelance.
The question is, who is the owner of the hack?

e.g,
what happens when we pay a mid $$$ for a customized hack,
and then, we see the coder sales it for dozens of people for a small $$ each.

I assume it's a question of the contract between the two parties.

What do you say?

[Dean C]

Unless you sign a contract which states that all code is copyrighted to you after payment, then the coder has the rights to do what he wants with it :)

[totem]

That's fair enough.
Thank you!
Great site!

[Erwin]

Depends on the contract.

[Princeton]

The coder retains all copyrights to hack/application unless a contract exists.

Keep in mind that if you set limits or require that full copyrights be transferred to you .. you may have to pay more

It would be to your advantage if you encourage the sale (or sharing) of 'script' ...

SCENARIO:
If the coder decides to, "sales it for dozens of people for a small $$") ... you will now have more people to find bugs, make requests, add new features, etc. In the long run, you and everyone will get a better product.

You see ... it's a win-win for everyone.

NOTE: No application is 100% bug-proof. Look at vbulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/bugs.php)