Re: FLASH: turning over .fla files

[Gregg Caines]

I'm not sure what's standard, but we always

have contracts for the jobs we do, even with a

middleman.  The contract will define the terms

and will dictate what you must and must not

relinquish.


The main advantage to contracting rather than

regular employment is that you should be able

to define your own means of completing the job

(time, place, method, etc.) provided that you

fulfill the requirements of the contract.


The law of your country will dictate what is

expected in the event that something is not

discussed in the contract.  I believe both

Canadian and American contract law allows, by

default, the contracted company to retain

ownership of anything that is not the final

product.  So I think the FLA should be

considered a 'method of completing the job'

and not a final product.  Your methods are, by

default, your own intellectual property, unless

you surrender them explicitly in the contract.


My company writes a lot of custom software,

and we (very) rarely give away any source

code, and when we do, we get compensated.

The source code (or the FLA in this case) is the

method, not the product.  It's not usually

economically smart to hand over your means of

production to someone else.


With all that said, it's still best to write everything

in the contract, and make sure the contractor

understands everything.  If there are surprises

about expectations later on, even if the contract

is very specific in that area, then someone will be

disappointed.


That's what works for us anyway....


---------------------------------------------------

Gregg Caines

n e o m e t r i x  systems inc.

http://www.neometrixsystems.com

gcainesneometrixsystems [dot] com

> Would delivery of a .fla file to a company to whom you are

> subcontracting (not the final client, who probably just wants a working

> flash demo) fall into the same category as delivery of a .fla to a

> client?  ie, would it be standard to include an extra charge (in

> addition to rate charged for the .swf/.exe) for delivery of the .fla to

> the company who has hired you (as a consultant, not an employee) to

> produce a flash demo?

>

> Thanks for your thoughts on this,

> Helen

> ----------------------------------------

>  helen triolo  �  http://i-technica.com

>

designeri-technica [dot] com � 301-424-6037

> ----------------------------------------



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