After careful research, I choose this Nolo book when it came time to license my company's software. I guess it's silly after spending so much moola to develop software, to not go to an attorney, but I like to think I can figure out all this stuff on my own. I looked at a lot of user agreements online, I figured I could just put together something the big guns paid a lot of money for. If their agreements worked for them, they should work for me. But, I didn't want to plagarize them, and, well, you never know what you don't know and you can't be too careful in business these days. What you don't know is what will bring you down. I have used many NOLO books as guides and trust them. They are always easy to skim and read. I also bought Quicken's Legal Business Pro 2007 software. The sum of the 2 is way less than attorney fees, and now I understand it myself as well. I am so happy I bought this book with a CD because it made me realize how important it is to also protect our work with copyrights, trademarks, agreements, etc. Most importantly, I found out who owns the software we paid to develop, and it's not us, surprisingly! So I have to get that signed off before I can license it to someone else. It's not in depth but I don't think it's meant to be, it's a GUIDE, people. Now I will buy NOLO's books to guide me through the process for legal protection. The employment & consulting agreement chapters were not useful to me, but they may be to someone else. There are other books devoted to that and NOLO has them too. (check out their website and e-mail newsletters.)I feel I got more information than I expected and know what to do to take the next steps. Very important info for CA users, the laws are not the same as other states,(what's different?) and this book points the differences out. The format is such that one is able to cut and paste together the different parts and verbiage you need which will apply to your needs. Buy the book and get your bright yellow highlighter out!

Nolo delivers again with its guide to web and software development. The book is easy to read, has sufficient tips and examples, and is a great primer.

It does not get into incredible detail on any one subject, but that's not its purpose either. It gives you sufficient resources (including the necessary forms) to get a software company or product started. When the product / company start growing fast, it's worth doing a review with an attorney, but not until then.

I recommend buying this if you are: a software developer looking to go freelance; starting a software company; or doing any consultant work in web or software development.

I found this book most useful for the CD-ROM's legal contracts. As a consultant, I use these for all my clients.

I have found my clients legal contracts to be biased entirely in their favor rather than this CD's contracts which tend to be fair and balanced, protecting both parties.

I found this book most useful for the CD-ROM's legal contracts. As a consultant, I use these for all my clients.

I have found my clients legal contracts to be biased entirely in their favor rather than this CD's contracts which tend to be fair and balanced, protecting both parties.

There is a lot of good information and discussion in this book about the topics which a contract should cover. It falls down, however, when it comes to the actual contracts. Just comparing the website and the custom software contracts, there are differences where there shouldn't be. In the software contract, it's the Customer, in the website contract, it's the Client. A bit more than half of the contract sections with (mostly) identical headings and purpose have unexplained differences between them. Many of these differences are not trivial. In the text, the contracts are interleaved with explanations, but often the commentary/annotations are just restatements of the contract itself, which is a real time-waster, especially if you've read the background material earlier in the book. Other occasional editing snafus include explanatory comments inside the contract text, formatting syntax commands on the page (END SECTION), and a less than clear and concise structure for indicating optional clauses (the intended combinations aren't always clear, even though customization is to be expected). Given the fuzzy line between a website and a web application (ie 'custom software' (and really, what website is NOT custom?)), and given the marked similarities in over half of the two contracts, why not cover the overlapping sections just once, instead of twice, but inconsistently? And the sections that don't overlap, or overlap badly? No real explanation as to the reasons for the differences. I hope I don't have the same problems with the two versions of the independent contractor agreement. Fishman has written a pile of legal books for the layman, including the more recent "Consultant And Independent Contractor Agreements 5th Edition". I have to wonder: "Quantity over quality?" Perhaps when he is working on the next edition of this book ("Legal Guide to Web & Software Development", due out 8/2007), he will take the time to re-organize some of the content and get a capable editor. A determined reader can sort out the differences on their own, but it need not be so difficult. The content is 5 stars (including 24 documents in RTF format), but making it work for you is a real pain if you care about details.

A straightforward and well organized book.

I needed a brief on copyright ownership, a draft software licensing agreement and a software maintenance agreement. I got all 3 with this publication.

It is nice to find a book so fit for purpose.

I have been a programmer of some sorts for the last 15+ years
and I had no idea, That I as a programmer/consultant had so many rights concerning development, and concerning my clients/customers etc...

If your a programmer/developer, or hire programmers/developers you have to (MUST) read this book!!!

and the forms/cdrom is really good, don't forget to download new forms, updates etc... from their website.

This book/CD ROM combination covers intellectual property from a developer's (and buyer's) perspective. It is both a tutorial in the basics and is filled with useful advice about all relevent issues, including employee and contractor agreements, trade secret protection, copyright rights (assignment, ownership and related issues), and how to protect all parties in a fair and equitable manner.It covers contemporary issues such as domain names, web content and multimedia, making it especially useful to technical and non-technical readers.

In addition to clear explanations of complex topics and sound advice, this book comes with a CD ROM with a wealth of forms in RTF format (which can be edited in Microsoft Word and most other word processing programs). These 30 forms cover employee and contractor agreements, software and web development agreements, nondisclosure agreements, copyright assignments and license agreements and how to handle publicity releases and promotional materials in multimedia format. The latter is particularly challenging because not only are names involved, but photos and often voice and video files for which you need permission to use if you don't own it or it becomes a privacy issue. If you perform or contract for web or software development, including content, then you need this book.

This is simply the best book on the subject. It appears to have been recently updated from the older version, with much new info. The strenght of this book is it doesn't go into "legalese" - instead, the caveats of software development are explained in plain english. If you are entering into a legal software development contract, this book is a necessity and worth it's price many times over. Great for the small developer, not just the big shops!

Answered all of my questions and was surprisingly up to date. It would be nice if there were more material on open source legal issues, however.

One of the problem with this industry is that they do not prepare programmers for the realities of business. This book is an eye opening review of the considerations that must be considered when programmers must work the business side of what they do.

Although there is a lot of attention paid to intellectual property law, there is a lot of good information for the consultant to read. The rest of the book is about agreements and contracts, which every contractor needs. With the samples on the CD, it provides solid guidelines on the business of programming!

If you are a consultant, especially an independent consultant, they why don't you have a copy of this book??