No. 4: You Do Not Actually Own the Copyright to “Your” Source Code
No matter how much the phrase “work for hire” is thrown around in the tech world, let me be very clear: Software code CANNOT be a work for hire under U.S. copyright law.
That is, simply paying someone to write software code for you does not mean you own the copyright to the code!
In order to own the copyright to software code written by an independent contractor (i.e., a non-employee), you must have a written agreement assigning the copyright code to you. This is best done BEFORE the code is actually written.
As the old saying goes, I wish I had a dollar for every time I had to counsel an entrepreneur who hired a programmer to author code about the fact that they do not own the IP to the resulting work product for which they paid.
