

Contract coding conundrum - kzar

Hi guys,<p>I am getting into contract programing and I have a problem. Supposing I quoted a price (via email) and the guy accepts, then I realise the work is harder than I thought and the code could be licenced.<p>Is it legal to say "Sorry I've changed my mind, I'm coding this on my own now but I'll give you a free copy when it's ready."<p>If not, is it legal to say "Sorry something has come up and I don't want to work with you any more" but then code it for myself?<p>I have signed no contracts, spoken on the phone once and exchanged a few emails. I've barely started the code and we first emailed about a week ago.
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ninjaa
Good forum on the topic: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/900803/cost-and-
ownership...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/900803/cost-and-ownership-of-
source-code-as-a-freelance-programmer)

I believe in CA the following holds true (from a comment in the above thread)
but am not a lawyer and DO NOT KNOW FOR SURE: "The normal situation with
freelance programming is that the client will own the source code. That being
said--depending on jurisdiction and many other factors--if it's not specified
in any contract it will often default to the freelance programmer."

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CyberFonic
You can't call it a "contract programming" situation if there is no contract.
What you are admitting to is quoting a price in haste (to get the job?) and
getting it wrong. I would never provide a quote until the client has provided
a specification. If they can't produce a spec, then I write one for them on a
T&M basis and suggest that the client invites others as well to quote on doing
the job. The spec then becomes part of the contract.

What the client does with your program once completed should be of no concern
to you. You wrote it for them and it's theirs to use or not use as they
please. As ninjaa points out, you may or may not have intellectual property
rights to the program depending on the jurisdiction in which the agreement was
reached.

If you accept no money and reneg, then your client doesn't have much to grouse
about except for the wasted time. It's obvious that your client wasn't being
professional either since they didn't demand a written contract. You could
probably both put this episode behind you and chalk it up to experience.

~~~
weaksauce
It all depends on how the email was worded. If the email said "How much will x
website/photoshop killer cost?" and the guy said, "I would say about $xxx"
then there is no contract. But if the emails read more like, "How much would
you charge for x." and he replies, "oh I would do it for $xxx." and the client
says, "OK." This would result in a contract in CA and probably in others. Even
without that second exchange of emails a verbal contract is still a contract
so you need to be careful of what you agree to do.

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mahmud
Break the project into milestones and give a tentative price for the first two
or so milestones.

You can quickly figure out who is a dick and who is not wrt to contract
employers based on how much they talk about the project, how involved they are
and how bad they want it. There are people out there who fancy themselves
software "owners" and are just in it for the sake of saying "my programmer .."
in polite conversations. Avoid people with Big Ideas and work with people who
want a problem solved.

Also beware of wannabe software vendors and resellers; people who will pay you
to write software they intend to resell, and not use directly. Those tend to
over think it and they're swayed by the slightest shift in trends; a blog post
they read somewhere can bring the project to a halt. It's good to be paid, but
it's even better to know your work is being used somewhere by someone, instead
of it sitting in someone's My Documents folder.

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gruseom
You're asking two different questions: (1) what to do when discovering that
you underestimated the work involved in a project; (2) can you legally deceive
and steal.

The only answer that covers both of these is: think long and hard about what
kind of person you want to be. This isn't a "contract coding conundrum" at
all.

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frenzy_maker
I see a lot of good advice here, but what sticks out and hasn't been addressed
is that the OP is essentially asking, "Can I steal this client's idea?"

If you chose to do this OP, I hope it is the best idea ever -- because if it's
not, you've probably sunk your career as a contract programmer, so I hope you
have a plan B in the wings.

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wizzard
I think he's asking if it's OK to steal the guy's idea and do it on his own,
because he wants to license it himself.

