Your Client Doesn’t Own Your Code Even If You Wrote It For Them

When freelancing contracts, decide who owns what part of the work.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Legal ownership of code isn’t as simple as the one paying for it owns it.

A client asked me for exclusive rights to code. I thought that was a weird ask as they were paying for the code. That was until a lawyer explained that the client didn’t own the code unless I assigned rights to them.

Clients usually don’t get rights automatically when they hand over money.

Rights for creative work have to be explicitly assigned.

In the U.S., we have Work for Hire, which has guidelines for the copyright to be assigned to the client.

1. It has to be work that is used for specific purposes.
2. It has to be specially ordered or commissioned for use.
3. Both parties must agree in writing to assign the rights.

Most countries should have something similar to protect their contractors.

If a client wants exclusive rights to your code, sell it at 3x-5x the cost.