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Beta-Testers and Intellectual Property?
cozimek asks: "I've got a question I'm sure many other Slashdot users have dealt with. My startup has been starting programming development with testing from our beta-clients. One of these clients, however, has begun discussing intellectual property rights. They believe that they deserve rights to parts of our software because they have helped give us advice through the development process. We think we own it all, and that they should be happy to have our services, tailored to their needs, for free. Has anyone dealt with these issues? Has anyone created a beta-tester contract?" As with all such issues, the devil is in the details...particularly the contractual ones. If you've had such issues before, from either side, please let us know how things turned out.
I'd say they (the beta testers) don't own any portion of the IP rights. If a beta tester points out that doing X, Y, and Z will cause a crash, they're simply giving you feedback about your product. You're the one who comes up with a solution on how to fix it. Even if they give a way to fix it, they don't own the IP rights to that method. This is assuming that you control the source code 100%. If the code is freely available, someone submits some patched code, and you use it then all bets are off. To be on the safe side, you should probably have a disclaimer somewhere on the beta test site that states that all submissions become your property. Just to be on the safe side. (I tend to beta test my programs with a group of technically adept friends of mine, so I've never run into this. They're unlikely to demand rights to my program, they're just happy that I continue to develop it.)
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If they actually contributed code to your software, or designed hardware components, then they may reasonably regret giving it to you for nothing, but if they gave you stuff with an understanding that it would be used in your product, without making it quite clear (preferably by contract) that they expected to be part-owners of the resulting product, then I don't see how they could possibly have an argument that could hold up in court.
Another question: is this a copyright or patent issue? For copyright, the implementation is all that matters, so if they didn't give you actual code or circuit diagrams that are present in your final product, then they have no basis to claim ownership. If patents are at issue, then it could be a little murkier.
The law says if you write it, it's yours automatically.
Not necessarily. Work done under commission is implicitly the property of the employer, not the employee. In the case of beta testing, a software company solicits advice from testers, "paying" them by not charging for use of their software.
And there's nothing illegal about a company using someone else's idea -- unless that idea is patented, copyrighted, or acknowledged as hands-off in a mutual NDA. We see this all the time.