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  • #2142145

    WHO OWNS MOBILE APP SOURCECODE WHEN YOU HIRE A CODER?

    by oblvion ·

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    IF I hire a Coder who is a Company or Contractor, who owns the SOURCECODE to my App idea? So… how do I make money from my App without a Coder from a company or no company using my App and its sourcecode from being used with or without changes? I want to own my APP and its SOURCECODE 100% !!

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    • #2417083
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      That’s in your contract.

      by rproffitt ·

      In reply to WHO OWNS MOBILE APP SOURCECODE WHEN YOU HIRE A CODER?

      However I do write code for companies and I take care since some code is code I’ve created over the years. This means the company I do the work for DOES NOT get ownership in its entirety.

      Because some things are reused on projects, if I were to give them 100% ownership the price would be commensurate with such an agreement. For me that would be a few million versus the usual thousands.

      Can you pay that bill?

    • #2417078

      WHO OWNS MOBILE APP SOURCECODE WHEN YOU HIRE A CODER?

      by johnayden702 ·

      In reply to WHO OWNS MOBILE APP SOURCECODE WHEN YOU HIRE A CODER?

      A client had developed an app and asked us to do some minor work on their existing app. I told him that we would need access to the source code so the client went back to the original developer to get the source code only to find that the developer claimed the source code as his intellectual property and refused to provide it. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve seen this source code ownership issue. Here are some of the implications of not owning the source code to your app:

      You are forever tied to the developer. Any modification, bug fix, or upgrade has to go through that developer. This is problematic because the developer could raise the price of development and is problematic if that developer becomes sick, busy with other projects, etc.
      Raising funds or selling your project becomes more difficult because there’s a question of who owns the intellectual property.
      Common-Law

      In general, the author of content owns the copyright. For example, if you hire a photographer for your wedding, the photographer owns the copyright for the photos and you’ll need to pay her for it. In the case of a software developer, it’s the person physically typing on the keyboard to create the code. An exception occurs under the “Work for Hire” doctrine where the work is developed by an employee with the scope of their employment. However, when contractors are used, this becomes a little more unclear.

      Personal Opinion

      If I hire someone to buy a house, at the end of the project, I want the keys to it. In a similar fashion, if I pay someone to develop an app for me, I would expect to have the source code upon completion. At Apptology, this is our general policy. The exception is when we develop an app-based on one of our templates. In which case, the template is our intellectual property.

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