Freelancing Stack Exchange
Freelancing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [legal]

A tag for legal issues surrounding freelance work, such as tax or company incorporation. Questions with this tag must follow the "Back it up" rule.

Answers with this tag must follow the "Back it up" rule, in which you must show citations or some sort of legal text to back up your answer. Answers without proper citations may be edited or removed.

For questions, you must tell us what jurisdiction you are located in; for example, I am in British Columbia, Canada. Blanket legal questions without some sort of research or agreement in place to fall back on may be closed.

178 questions
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6 answers

Client threatening to take legal actions -- How should I have prevented this?

I recently was in the mockup stage with a client (with whom I didn't enter any contract or anything) and provided him mockups of designs. I asked for an upfront (very small just because he was first client and I had to plan for worst) but he…
anon
6
votes
1 answer

What do I need when I want to work as freelance developer in Ireland (Dublin)?

I am german and have a MSc in CS. Since I am planning to live in Dublin for the next years and want to keep some of my current german customers as freelance developer, what legal steps do I need to follow to start a business in Ireland? Where do I…
Marina L.
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5
votes
1 answer

Do you own the right to publish someone's work after you pay them?

Let's say I ask someone to make a 3d model of a monster, can I then publish his work on a modding website? Is there any other thing I need to be aware of? Do I have to put his name to credit him for the model, or not? I am just wondering, because I…
Sayaman
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4
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4 answers

How to guard against being held responsible for loss/damages whilst helping someone with basic computing?

I'm looking into helping people with the basics of computing: basic excel, word , powerpoint, email, searching the web (Move onto more intermediate things as I grow in confidence and gain teaching skills). Self employed. I'm only talking initally…
user22145
4
votes
3 answers

How to protect yourself from clients who are scammers or involved in illegal activity?

As I start looking into the possibility of freelancing more and more, I've run into a problem (as someone had warned me before on here). I am afraid of dealing with scammers online (or even offline). I am generally computer-savvy enough to spot…
Andrew
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4
votes
4 answers

If a client asks for something that is illegal, am I legally liable for implementing it?

If I implement some software that is illegal (for example, for something as small as sending unsolicited email, or something as big as a deliberate bug that would cause a death), at the request of a client, am I legally liable for it? Does it make a…
spookylukey
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3
votes
1 answer

Client threatening to sue (without a contract)

I was appointed a designer post by a company (that seemed big at the time) and based in London. The man they asked me to get in touch with for the work and updates was a sort of celeb here in India. He claimed the company to be making a new label…
Ankita Suri
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3
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2 answers

Can a business have two completely different services?

I own a Software Development business with just myself. I use it for all of my freelance work. I also have tons of experience with Private Investigations and I have a few old clients wanting to know if I still do PI work. My business is registered…
Cory Fail
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2
votes
0 answers

Legal requirements when launching a video streaming service

I'm about to launch an app in which the users can transmit the screen of their android phones and then see it in a browser. It is used mainly for demonstrations. It also transmits the audio captured by the microphone. This audio and video are…
svprdga
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2
votes
3 answers

Do freelancers working together need to register a company?

I've been working with a group of freelancers for a few years now as we all work in the same industry (web development) so we've been helping small businesses on CL a lot. We decided that we want to own our own website to market our services but by…
Memj
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1
vote
1 answer

Supplying your own people to a client. Conflict of interest? Full disclosure?

I was recruited as a software developer through an agency to an end client. Now having worked with the client for a couple of years they trust me and are always asking if I know fellow developers that might consider joining. I was thinking about…
Jon Bas
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1
vote
1 answer

What laws classify an employee as a contingent worker?

I was reading this in Wikipedia: However, there is risk involved in avoiding these costs if an employee is improperly classified as a contingent worker. What laws make this a risk?
leeand00
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1
vote
2 answers

My freelancer stopped responding and we paid him more than he's completed, how to handle?

We paid him most of the payment total and have found out that most of the code isn't functioning as we had expected. We're learning from our mistake but I'm trying to see how I can get some money back. We paid him $2,000 out of the $2,500 total. He…
user1858780
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1
vote
1 answer

Is it legal to use code written for a customer's app for a personal business app?

I have written a web app for a client. In our contract we have it explicity written that we retain rights to all of the code within the app. Is it legal to repurpose that code for a similar app that we would change and then sell to future customers?
AJStacy
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1
vote
1 answer

Am I considered E-Commerce when registering for DBA/Affiliate programs?

I am building multiple websites that are geared toward providing information as well as user submitted content (like fan art). A few ad programs and affiliate programs I have looked at ask me to "Provide a brief description of the kind of business…
Matthew Verstraete
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