>I pose the following question in order to get opinions, not legal advice. I realize most of the people here are programmers, not lawyers. I am merely soliciting personal opinions and experiences.
>
>An independant programmer writes a program under a Verbal contract to XXX company per XXX's specifications, and is paid a certain sum of money to do this, and the programmer also declares the program Copyrited under the programmers name or business, ie: Copyrite 1998, MyBiz.
>
>Who 'owns' the program?
>
>Can XXX company give away or sell the program without the programmers permission?
>
>Does the programmer retain all rights to the program?
>
>anything else in this genre that might apply.
>
>I am interested in any and all opinions.
>TIA
>Dan


I've been going through this recently as I am having to sue a client that did not pay. I spoke with an attorney who specializes in copyright law. It does not matter if the contract was verbal or written. The contractor owns the copyright, marketing rights, patent rights, etc. The contract can state that the client obtains specific rights. Unless specifically granted, ALL rights belong to the author. However, if the author is an employee of the company he is writing the program for, then all rights belong to the employer.