If I pay someone to write some software for me and our contract doesn't specify, do I own the rights to the source code, or does the company who wrote the software? Who does the intellectual property belong to in this situation?
I'm specifically interested in the answer as it applies in the United Kingdom.
In my experience, if it isn't specified in the contract than, the entity paying for the work owns it. However you can get around this a bit if you have reused code that you explicitly own in the project. In that case you have a great bargaining chip since their code can't operate without your own explicit intellectual property.
Best of luck to you.
According the Joel Spolsky, the client would own the code unless you explicitly specify otherwise in a contract.
http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=7587
That said, Wikipedia seems to say that it is only a "work for hire" (Joel's term) if there is an explicit written agreement specifying it as such. Interesting that the way this is done is considering the client to be the "author" for the purposes of copyright law in a "work for hire".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire#cite_note-8
If you dig through the Wikipedia article, you will notice that it implies that the programmer would retain ownership in the UK. Here is a link to the actual UK law:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/ukpga_19880048_en_2#pt1-ch1-pb3-l1g9