Re: FN-FORUM: Intellectual Property

date posted 1st August 2005 14:06

I've been over this point a few times now.

Refer sections 8-16 of the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The
programmer is completely in the right. The analogy most commonly referred to
in this scenario is that of the wedding photographer. Your wedding, you pay
the photographer for photos... he owns the photograph originals unless
otherwise agreed because it's his work/design (he is the author).

The scenario you set out is simply not open to interpretation. It is a clear
legal position. Programmer wins.

Mike A.

Tam Denholm wrote:
> I was just reading through a forum im a regular at and one point has
> been under a lot of discussion, intellectual property and the
> protection of it. This is quite a common problem, but a less discussed
> variation of it was in this forum post.
>
> The poster was stating that he hired a programmer to make him a custom
> script, no legally binding document was signed, we all know this was
> his mistake and not what i mean to discuss. The programmer has started
> to sell the clients work, undercutting the clients price and basically
> ruining his business plan.
>
> What i want to know is what are the rights of both parties? Having no
> legal documention, i took an uneducated guess that theres not a lot
> the client can do, the programmer has the right to profit from the
> script as its his intellectual property, he coded it, even though it
> was made to the clients exact specifications and had all the clients
> ideas. Also the client could carry on and sell the script aswell, as
> he also owns it.
>
> I stated that i had no idea if this was the case or not and was very
> much a guess yet i get my head bitten off by another forum member
> stating that if i was correct and you goto a tailor with an idea for a
> suit then get it made to your specifications then the tailor would
> also own the suit and have the right to wear it. I replied saying that
> obviously was not the case, however the tailor would have the right to
> make an exact copy of the suit and sell it, providing there was no
> legal document preventing him to do so.
>
> So I open this point for discussion. I believe it'll be quite an
> active one.
>
> Cheers,
> Tam Denholm
> www.dreadlabs.com
>
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