Recently I saw in freelancer.com a guy who owned a software company (one of the freelancers) who was claiming that he gives the source code to the client.
Personally I don't.
What is your opinion on this?
Do you give the source code?
Recently I saw in freelancer.com a guy who owned a software company (one of the freelancers) who was claiming that he gives the source code to the client.
Personally I don't.
What is your opinion on this?
Do you give the source code?
Last edited by panoss; 05-17-2015 at 08:59 AM.
If I am charging by the hour, yes. I do have some classes that I prefer not to share. In those instances I will create an app for a specific function and distribute an accde. However, there is nothing that really prevents the consumer from distributing those whole applications to others. I can only make it difficult to do so.
I would think this would be part of any negotiation or contract. I know with many government orgs the code is part of the project and becomes part of the delivered project. However, as ItsMe indicates, if you have a number of custom classes and generic routines that can simplify routine tasks, I don't think you should give that away. The accde approach seems reasonable, but it's probably a key point when negotiating price and deliverables.
I also have seen posts where the developer retains the source code, but typically they have an ongoing agreement for maintenance/tech support etc with the client.
Most of my work is for my employer (obviously they get the code), but I do side work for clients as well. Normally I do give them the source code. I would not if it was something more commercially applicable or shrink-wrapped, but I generally work with smaller companies on very customized applications. As often as not I'm just adding functionality to an app somebody else built anyway. I'm not worried they're going to resell the application or use my code for something else.