Programmer Contract

[gellyware]

I'm looking for a programmer contract that gives x% of royalties to a programmer for the current project I'm working on.

Can you recommend or point me in the right direction of:

1) Where to find pre-written programmer contracts

2) Do you have any contracts that you use and are willing to share

3) Recommend an appropriate lawyer to have one drawn up


I understand that each job may have unique conditions and I am wondering if a 'typical' contract would suit my needs and that of the programmer or.... if at the very least if it would help reduce lawyer fees.

Thanks in advance

Charles

[Obscure]

Afraid I can only help with the last one.... I have a list of game industry/Intellectual Property experienced lawyers here (http://www.obscure.co.uk/directory-legal/).

[Cartman]

I've used Tom Buscaglia's contracts from his Game Developer Kit. It's well worth the money in my opinion.
http://www.gamedevkit.com/

[jpoag]

http://www.docstoc.com/search/programming-contractor/

http://www.weblawresources.com/Independent%20Contractor%20-%20Programming-Services.htm


I'm also currently researching this subject. I think you're looking for an Indepedant contractor agreement. Also, be sure to specify things like back-end royalties, percentages of sales (ie the company sells the game to the publisher), early termination fees, transfer of IP rights, who owns the code (are you licensing the code or complete code rights transfers?)

I'm going down to an Office store to find software for writing contracts.

Also, keep in mind that what you should do is write down a set of points that are important to you. Then you sit down with the company and negotiate on these points.

When you get up from the table, you write up the contract and submit it for approval to the company. They go over the contract and highlight the errors.

You sit down again and talk out these points. You negotiate again until all parties are satisfied and draw up another agreement.

Then, once everyone agrees to the contract, everyone signs it and you should probably make 3 copies, one for each party and another for safe keeping somewhere (this is probably overkill).


-James