Hey,
Does anyone have any input on the legal or ethical considerations involved with showing examples of my code to potential clients? It seems a bit shady to share code other clients paid for. What's the best approach? To scrub out any sensitive or identifying information? Is this something commonly done?
Thanks!
Edit: A client has requested code samples. I wouldn't offer them up otherwise.
It depends on the contract with your previous clients. Did they pay for the code? in which case it is their property, or did they pay for a licence to use the software? in which case code is your property.
Another point. Do you feel free to reuse code from one client to another?
If I were using it for all my other clients I would probably offer a scaled refund to the one who paid for it. I don't think it is legally necessary, and they may have agreed to pay all costs for development to have access to the work first/in a timely manner.
Asking for legal advice here is not a good idea - or rather, following "legal" advice from here is not a good idea.
Ask yourself this: if you were in their shoes, what would you want to have happen?
That is a good guiding principle I think for all business decisions.
Assuming you don't own the code, the best approach is always to check with those who do.
Barring that, take steps yourself to sanitize the code you've worked on, and to provide an example long enough to demonstrate your skills, yet not so long that the potential client can profit off the previous client's investment.
EDIT: I'm just dealing with the ethical aspects as I see them. The legality may be a whole other issue.
My standard answer to legal questions: In the US, you should be able to get a short, low-cost referral to a lawyer who specializes in the sort of law you're into by asking your local Bar Association. Unless you have a contract that specifies who owns the code copyright and licensing terms (and I don't think you'd be asking this if you did), you need professional legal advice.
As far as ethics go, you need to make sure you're not giving away any secrets of your former clients. You can probably get away with showing generic code, but anything with business logic in it is probably not sharable.