>Just out of curiousity, those of you who are independant contractors and developers; how much of your source code do you normally give over to clients? Most people (prospective clients) I've talked to want rights to the code, which is understandable. But how do you protect your class libraries and other custom methods? If they "own" the source code as "work for hire", custom class libraries need to be turned over in addition to forms and .prg's, right? Otherwise they can't modify the application in the future.
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>If a client hires you to develop an app, and then gets someone else to help out or build a different part, what's to keep the other developer from copying your stuff? Or is that just a part of the business?
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>- Brian

These are few guidelines I like to go by:

I retain rights to processes, designs and source code. This means that any code I have written for them that does not model a proprietary system belonging to them, I can use in any other app I write.
They retain exclusive rights to the completed application.
Neither of us has resale rights to the application.

However, sometimes the app might be a good vertical, so I prefer to give them exclusive rights for a certain number of years (I like to start at 3) after which they may license the app like anyone else (sometimes at a reduced rate), or enter into partnership with them. If they take the latter, there can be ongoing funding for R&D, so I will usually cut the rate.

If they insist on absolute rights (meaning that I cannot reuse any code design I come up with during the process) and really want me to write it, I write everything from scratch and don't create anything particularly reusable.
This is also done by the hour at the "mechanic's rate." I can still write good code this way, but it makes everything fit very tightly, which means enhancements are costlier for them. I make sure they understand this, and they usually back off of the absolute rights.
Sometimes, I get a potential client that is very restrictive as to what reusable means. These will expect you not to reuse common VFP coding practices, like a methodology to store and clean up open tables and databases. IOW, "FOR...ENDFOR" is a "code design" and therefore I would not be able to use this in any future coding. I do not work with these folks. I tell them if they really want me to write it, it will cost them 5,000,000 USD. That way I can retire when I'm done. <g>

If I need to fix any bugs or design flaws introduced by subsequent developers, the rate for this is also higher.

As far as another developer copying your stuff, remember this. In all programming languages, someone else is eventually going to do a particular thing the same way you have anyway, so protecting your code is not all that fruitful an effort. As you can see from this site, most developers are pretty free with the cool stuff they've developed or discovered.

HTH

BTW, out at http://www.hentzenwerke.com/hwbooks/BookList.htm there are some good books on the whole development process, including the business end of things.