Not Not An Employee: Work-For-Hire
Most all the time, being not an employee is a good thing. But there are occasions when it’s not. For one, at least, is when you enter into contracts on a work-for-hire situation. Abusive work-for-hire clauses can leave you without ownership of your own work.
When you’re traditionally employed and enjoying a consistent paycheck and health benefits and vacation time and so on, it’s largely reasonable to expect that the works you create for your employer are the property of your employer. It’s part of the deal. But when you are freelancing or otherwise contracting with a company, who owns the final works is something that must be negotiated.
Realize that the first draft of the contract for the ownership of the work product is just that - a first draft. Be prepared to edit it and send it back. Look for clauses asking for exclusive rights, look for promises not to compete, and look for promises of confidentiality. These are all items which can be the starting points for discussion.
There is an excellent write up of work-for-hire, what it means and why it should be avoided here: Stop Work For Hire Work-for-hire can only legally be applied to a fairly short list of creations, however, if you sign a contract with a work-for-hire clause, even for a creation that is not on the short list, you’ve put yourself in a situation where you would have to fund a legal battle in civil court to protect your rights.
Know the rules, be smart about your contracts and don’t give up ownership of your work without proper compensation.
Author: mitten
Posted: Monday, August 25th, 2008
Category: NAE Business, Resources
August 28th, 2008 at 11:24 am
This is a big issue that burns all consultants/freelancers/independents at least once, and usually only once. My standard contract “starting point” for SEO consulting services is very verbose and probably overkill, but it sets the stage for the negotiation. I’ve been asked several times why it is so complex, but I respond that the indemnity, IP, arbitration, and other clauses are there not to intimidate either side, but to protect both sides in case something goes horribly wrong. I’ve never had a client argue with that. I would love to work based on a handshake and a verbal agreement, but there are too many things that can go wrong.
A couple of good resources that helped me get started are: “Getting Started in Consulting” by Alan Weiss, and “Small Business Kit For Dummies” by Wiley Publishing. Both include sample documents and the Dummies book comes with a CD loaded with templates for all types of small biz documents.