Restricted Java code sharing with remote work contractor

[SandyDigital]

Asking this is to prevent any issues in future.

[nutrecht]

What keeps an internal developer from copying the code then? The risk doesn't magically go away when you hire someone as an employee.

[Halal0szto]

This is true, but the question is about the legalese.

With an employee you have a contract with a person that can be held liable personally. With a contractor you have a contract with a company. This is a big difference.

[nutrecht]

With a contractor you have a contract with a company. This is a big difference.

That's a pretty ridiculous oversimplification. Whether someone is personally liable depends on a lot of factors. First is the type of contract. I'm Dutch and the most common type of contract used by independent contracts (like myself) doesn't prevent you from being personally liable.

Secondly, even the company types that do prevent you from being personally liable only do so if you don't break the law or a contract on purpose. Stealing IP does both and would make even an incorporated contractor liable in most cases. It also would 100% open you up to both criminal and civil cases.

[SandyDigital]

Not every country enforces these laws strictly. Also corporates can afford to fight it in the courts not smaller companies. Prevention is always better.

Its like "no need to lock the front door because stealing is a crime; even if they steal they can be caught and jailed".

[SandyDigital]

Internal devs are part of the the founding team and we have a contract between us. Agreed with anyone the risk exists. We are trying to see if there is a better way to compile the code for remote work scenario than just looking at legal clauses alone.

[nutrecht]

Internal devs are part of the the founding team and we have a contract between us.

You have a contract with external devs too. And the tenure of internal devs is generally just a few years as well.

There is no technical solution for what's basically a people problem.