Freelance help /advice

Nov 22, 2016

hello,

I am in my third year as a freelancer now mostly using AS as my dev tool.

I always seem to be in a position where I hand over the raw files to my clients where this hasn't been agreed up front. I am not clear as to what the default position is as I don't want my designs to be handed over to another company, do I just hand them over with a copywrite instruction?

any advice welcome, thanks in advance!

sharon

3 Replies
Christy Tucker

If you're doing work for hire, it's not unreasonable to hand over source files at the end. You should update the language of your contracts if you don't want to do so. I usually provide published files initially and then source files after the final payment is made. I think that's a typical arrangement, but you should spell it out in your agreement.

You might also want to add language about who owns the copyright for content created. If it's work for hire (which most freelance is), then it's your client's intellectual property, not yours.

susanne flynn

You should have a signed contract in place before you start any job that
states who owns the work/deliverables. From my experience (about 30 years),
if you are doing custom work for the client, they retain the rights to it.
If it is your off-the shelf work that you created, you should copyright it
and retain the rights. Most companies have a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
that you have to sign and it often includes verbiage about intellectual
property and ownership.

I also have a standard "boiler-plate" contract I use if there is the client
does not have one. I hired an attorney to help write it. Hope this is
helpful.

Kind regards,

Susanne Flynn

www.SDCsite.com

mobile 978 870 7855

suzi shukor

Hi, I'm facing the same dilemma here. I want to develop a Health and Safety course and want to source out the contents development. I've checked with several H&S online course providers, each claimed they have an IP. However, after I went through these courses, it appears to me that the contents are similar and yet protected by IP? So which part is actually protected by IP? They are structured in a similar way too: what the law says, what the policy says, roles and responsibilities etc.

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