Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Pennsylvania
freelancer rights
My understanding is, unless a work was done as ''work for hire'' then the author retains the copyright. My question is, does the place the work was submitted to get to keep using the submission if the author later objects, and wants them to cease using it? In this case, we are dealing with computer code. We had a group of us who all worked cooperatively on a site, and wrote code. It was a loose structure. We were friends. Then I left, started a competing web site, and the other place doesn't want me to use any of the code I developed for them. There were absolutely no contracts.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: freelancer rights
Right, the rule is that unless the work meets the test of a work made for hire or there was a written document transferring ownership, the author owns the copyright.
The case of Elaine Whelan v. Jaslow Dental Labs, decided by the federal appellate court in Philadelphia in the early 1980s, established that an independent contractor owns the copyright to computer code, even if written for a client.
Whether or not the software you describe would constitute a "collective work" as that term is used in the copyright law would be an appropriate question to ask an attorney to whom you confidentially disclose all the facts. Another question would be whether there is a "contract implied in fact" creating an implied license, arising from the relationship.
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