>Copywrite law is Federal but various states have regulations concerning who can obtain copywrite on computer code. In Georgia, if you write code for a customer and receive payment for it, the code itself belongs to your customer unless there is a prearrangement. This makes sense to me since the programmer is acting under the direction of the customer.

Calvin and Others,

I had to deal with copyright ownership a few years ago and consulted an intellectual property attorney. His explanation was this, the copyright belongs to the author unless 1) the work is a "work-for-hire" (employee-employer relationship), or 2) the copyrights are expressly transferred for consideration.

One of the things he explained is that you cannot sell teh copyright, you can only relinquish specific rights. The author still is the copyright holder, but the client may purchase certain of those rights for money or other consideration.

The key issue in this is whether or not the work is a "work-for-hire". That's where things get tricky. What represents an employee/employer relationship. Just about everything that has been said in this thread plays here, was the work done at the clients location, was the client's equipment used, did the client set the working hours, did the client suprevise the work, etc. etc.

The first thing I would do in the situation of the original poster would be to get an attorney and register the copyright with the federal government. The advantage of doing this is that if the client contests the ownership fo the copyright then, when registered, it is the burdon of the client to prove you don't own the copyright. If it is not registered then it is your burdon to prove that you do own the copyright.