Negotiating as an Independent IT Contractor?

C3ntaur asks: "I've been doing IT work -- System and Database Administration -- for over 10 years now, and I recently decided that it's high time I went freelance. I had done occasional side work before, but now I'm in the thick of it, with most of my income generated by contract work. One of the challenges I've encountered is in negotiating a fair contract, and I'd like to pose it to the Slashdot community: How do you deal with the PHB types who hand you boilerplate contracts that they themselves haven't read, let alone understand?" "I've patiently tried to explain my objections to legalese that translates to 'we own anything you've ever invented, or ever will invent', and 'you must obtain our written permission before working for anyone we deem to be a competitor', but it falls on deaf ears. In fact, I'm often told that it doesn't mean what I think it means. I am willing to hand over all rights to work I do within the scope of a contract, and I'm willing to protect and keep confidential a customer's IP and trade secrets, but the contracts they want me to sign are far, far broader than just that.

IANAL, but I do have a pretty good understanding of the English language. So unless these contracts are written, interpreted, and enforced in some Orwellian world where the lingua franca is Doublespeak, they could seriously hamstring my ability to earn a living. I cannot sign them, but my would-be customers won't do business with me if I don't. Any ideas?"

Comments

Easy

[azuroff]

Just sign the contract with disappearing ink. A few months down the road - no more problem.

Re:Easy

[sparty]

..and make sure you don't leave the pen anywhere near the desk of the client's Accounts Payable department.

Good idea.

[imag0]

Reminds me. The company came out with some sort of new "intellectual property agreement" crap a while back and sent it out to us. While a lot of items on it were of the "duh" sort, there were a number of provisions which I felt put code and ideas I came up with *off the clock at home* in jeopardy.

So, I changed them. A whole bunch of stuff in there which sidestepped a number of possible legal issues with OSS I have released and will release in the near-term. Hell, I stopped short of writing myself in a golden parachute just to see if I could get away with it.

Anyway, I signed it and they countersigned and I got a copy right here, just in case.

Did I mention it's probably A Bad Idea to send out contractual agreements in MS Word files?