Hi everyone, I'm about to outsource a large piece of website development work to a freelancer using one of the popular freelancer directory sites out there - Guru / Elance / Rentacoder etc. The main concern I have is how do I protect my concept from being ripped off by the freelancer who wins the job? E.g. what's to stop them from either re-selling my code to someone else once the job is complete, or even competing with me? I know a lot of these sites have copyright policies in place, but it seems they handle this differently. For example, the way I've read the Elance terms, it seems like the person who does the work for you ends up owning the code and you can use it freely under a "non-exclusive" license. Rentacoder on the other hand stipulates that their contract between buyer and seller of coding services is one of "work made for hire" in which the exclusive copyright for all works provided is transferred to the buyer. Can anybody clarify what mechanisms of protection there are for buyers of services like myself to protect our concept and copyright on the different freelancer sites? Also, should I be thinking about getting a developer to sign an NDA and/or a non-compete agreement as well? Is any of this even worth my time if I end up hiring a company from say India to develop the site (because of cost); given it would probably be hard to police if things went wrong? If anyone could shed some light that'd be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
You could have them sign a NDA, but it really should be drafted to be binding in the country the developer lives in - and while signing a NDA or non-compete may be good keeping some people in line just because they have signed a legal document, as a practical matter, it isn't going to be worth trying to sue someone in another country. You would be far better off in checking references of the firm/developer and paying more for an established and reputable company to do the work. Make sure your agreement states that you are the sole owner of the work.
This is a huge issue with these types of sites, you risk having ideas stolen. The best bet is to break it into smaller pogramming jobs so no one individual has all the details.