The Basics of Copyright Law

Copyright laws basically grant intellectual property rights and ownership to the creators of non-tangible items such as novels, music, website content and more. It can be applied to anything online – text, art, graphics, photos and music. This can also include software.

Copyright law gives the owner of the material five basic rights. These rights are:

• Reproduction Rights – Only the owner can determine who has the right to duplicate the work.
• Modification Rights – Only the owner has the right to modify the original to create a new work. An example of modification to a preexisting work is if you were to alter a photograph. Unless you own the rights to that photo, you could be in copyright violation.
• Distribution Rights – This concerns the right to distribute copies of the work, whether by selling them or giving them away. This is especially relevant to software developers who make their living by creating and selling software.

These three rights are the most important rights concerning software developers and licensing. The other two rights covered under copyright law are:

• Public Performance Right – Involving the right to perform the material (such as a song or script) to the public.
• Public Display Right – Similar to the Public Performance Right, this right involves displaying any images or video clips to the public.

If you work as a software developer, anything you create is solely yours to distribute and reproduce under copyright law. When you choose to grant permission to others to use the software or reproduce it – by installing it on another computer, for example – you are granting them license. When clients purchase software, they are generally purchasing licenses, not the actual ownership of the software. The ownership still belongs to you, the creator.

A great example of this is purchasing the Microsoft Office Suite for your office. If you have five computers that need the Microsoft Suite, you will purchase five licenses. This will allow you to install the Microsoft Suite up to five times.

For more information on copyright law, read this detailed explanation from contract and legal document experts, Contract Edge.

Top 7 Provisions Needed in a Staffing Agency Employment Agreement

Staffing and employment agencies are in a unique situation when it comes to employment agreements. Unlike a regular employer-employee business relationship, staffing agencies do business by loaning out their employees to other companies. The employees are technically considered independent contractors and are paid through the staffing agency, not through the client.

This obviously presents some tricky legal issues. How do you protect your agency from poachers? If your independent contractors are performing like they should be, client companies will often want to hire them on permanently. As a staffing agency that needs reliable people you can trust, you want to hold on to your employees as much as possible.

One way to do this is through setting up clearly stated, well written, quality employment agreements and contracts that establish some rules regarding an employee’s working relationship with a client. You can include provisions that prohibit solicitation from both parties (your client and your employee) beyond the scope of the job they were hired to do.

Here’s a list of the ten most important provisions that should be included and clarified prior to the commencement of any work being performed:

1. Scope of Services – clearly define, as specifically as possible, what work will be performed by the employee for the client. If the contractor will be expected to answer phones while at the position, include that in the contract. If it’s not included, the contractor should not be expected to do it.

2. Price and Payment Terms – as with any business agreement, it’s important that the price and how payment will be collected are discussed and agreed upon before any work is performs.

3. Employee Solicitation/Hiring – be very clear that solicitation of contractors will not be tolerated and is in violation of their contract.

4. Term and Termination – identify the time window in which your employee will be working for the client and what the end date will be for work performed.

5. Intellectual Property – who has the rights to any work performed or created by your employee while working for your client?

6. Confidential Information – a non-disclosure agreement never hurts here. Assure clients that any and all information a contractor is privy to during his or her time at the client company is confidential and treated as sensitive information.

7. Limitation of Liability – clarify what your staffing agency and contractors will be liable for. This is a good time for a liability agreement stating what you are directly liable for.

Non-Disclosure Agreements for Software Developers

People that work in or around the software development industry are often privy to confidential information regarding the software they are currently developing. Receptionists, developers, and everyone else in the office has access to information regarding a particular project. With an NDA in place, the software developer can have greater protection for  his ideas.  If it is, he has legal recourse thanks to his non-disclosure agreement.

Having a well-written non-disclosure agreement will provide an extra measure of security to those who develop software programs for a living. Non Disclosure Agreements set conditions for the exchange and use of confidential information and materials between the developer and a business associate.  It requires the other party to hold sensitive information confidential . More importantly, it gives the software developer legal recourse if the software is used illegally or if the project is exposed to anyone other than whom the NDA allows.

Sometimes both parties desire protection of their confidential information.  A mutual non-disclosure agreement is a common way to keep information protected. A mutual non-disclosure agreement protects both parties when they need to share information without the general public knowing. These types of agreements are usually used to outline individual business processes in a confidential manner. Companies for whom the developer is creating software may require a non-disclosure agreement in place so that additional protection is in place to ensure that all those who are privy to the details of the software’s development do not share it with anyone else than those who are directly involved in the project.  There are many scenarios where a non-disclosure agreement can be a vital tool.

Legal Forms Websites – What to Look For

If I tried to woo potential clients without showing them a portfolio, or even a testimonial, how would I be able to land any business? It would be great if I could just tell people that I know web design inside and out and I’ll show them after they pay me.  The same is true for legal form websites: you need to know what you’re getting before you pay for it. There are many sites out there that provide existing contract templates and agreements for web designers, so make sure you use a company that won’t surprise you.

Ideally, a legal forms website should explain what will be included in their contracts in advance and show you the outline of what you are buying.  Using online legal form templates is a huge timesaver if you have no idea how to create a valid web design agreement.  Once you’ve downloaded the software, you can edit the agreements to your own specifications and then use it right away.  Using a service like this is so much better than paying twenty dollars for a .PDF that you know is just being resold to you in the first place.  Plus, once you’ve downloaded the software that contains the contracts and agreements, you can re-use them anytime – just edit to your specifications & go!

What To Do When a Breach of Contract Occurs

Material Breach?

Breaches of contract can often turn into a confusing maze of questions and legal concerns, leaving you feeling lost and full of questions: What can I do when a contract has been breached?  Who do I turn to?  Where do I go from here?

First off, you have to be sure that there is, in fact, a breach of contract.  Once you determine if there is a breach; you have to assess to what degree or extent the contract has been breached.  Is it a minor breach?  Is it a material breach?  Is it a fundamental breach?  Is it an anticipatory breach?

Who do you turn to?  Well, that depends on more factors that cannot be easily redressed in a simple blog post.  If you have a decent understanding of your principle contract and the matter is, at most, a few thousand dollars, representing yourself in small claims court might be the best course of action. An attorney can provide counsel to help you determine if small claims court is right for you. If the matter is for a larger sum of money, for a slander issue, or if the issue(s) pertain to intellectual property rights, your first course of action should be to retain counsel.

If you decide to go it on your own, here are a few simple suggestions.  Again, this is not legal advice.  Determine where in your contract breaches have occurred.  Call those breaches to the attention of the party in breach.  Be sure to create a paper trail.  Do not make any inflammatory statements or any statements lacking facts or proof.  The last thing you want to do is make slanderous statements or accusations and exacerbate the situation.  Keep a cool and level head and if you are not able to come to an amicable resolution, turn the issue over to professionals.

Remember if you have a well written, solidly binding contract you should never find yourself with any breach-of-contract issues.  Planning and forethought go a long way.  Finally, avoid legal battles whenever possible. Long legal battles will only hurt you in the end.

Legalities of Contract Writing

In my experience, writing a legal contract on my own with no outside help is not only difficult it is somewhat scary. Have I dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s? Are my clauses in fact legal? The amount of added time it takes to ensure I am correctly following guidelines usually isn’t worth the minor expense of using an expert.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are writing your own contract. Remember: this isn’t legal advice coming from your attorney, it’s just some tips I’ve picked up over the years. With that in mind here is my list:

• A contract is an agreement between two or more parties
• A contract should spell out all of the obligations of the parties
• A contract should cover the expected time frame for parties to fulfill their obligations
• A contract should explain the desired compensation for obligations
• A contract should limit the liabilities of the involved parties
• A contract should clearly define the risks ensued by involved parties

As an independent contractor, I feel it makes sense to stick to my area of expertise and to rely on other experts when it comes to writing contracts.