>
>IP is a complex area. In general, if you wrote it, can prove it, didn't use someone else's resources to develop it, and did not cede your personal rights by contract, you hold copyright on your work. In order to protect your copyright, you need to file it with the government - consult an attorney with background in Intellectual Property law for exact details. Placing a statement that you were the author in the code is useful, but anyone with a couple of braincells can fix that...

Ed,

I disagree somewhat here. I've had several discussions with attorneys specializing in computer law. Copyright law and computer law are the same, yet different animals. Consulting an attorney who specializes in computer law is better.

Adding a comment line to every source file helps to protect your copyright.


>
>Copyright is an implied right; you wrote it, it's your creation. Filing a formal copyright establishes your authorship with a trusted third party. There are circumstances where having written something doesn't grant you ownership of what you've written; work for hire, may transfer ownership of the copyright to the people you did the work for - it's best established by contract. Using someone else's tools may entitle them to some rights of ownership, since arguably you could not have written it without their resources. Many employment contracts cede right of ownership.

In a work for hire, you own the copyright...period. If your original contract states that you will grant copyright to the client, you still must sign over that right at the end of the project. Failure to do so may result in you continuing to own the copyright and not the client.


>
>IANAL. You need to consult an attorney. It's a complex field, and lay opinions don't mean much. I can suggest some people that specialize in IP law if you can't find a local resource.