How not to be exploited?

[panchristo]

Hi all,

I'm having a cooperation but I suspect my partner assigns me the job for the first time to do all the hard work and then with minimal modifications redistributes the solution to other clients leaving me with a minimal reward for the initial application.

Any ideas how to protect my work so I can track if he's being nasty on me, or at least force him to ask my help every time and charge him appropriately?

[jamesducker]

If your partner has (or can get) admin rights to the system, and knows how to use FileMaker, then you can't really win this one easily.

If not, then there are a few things you could do... I won't give away on the forum what we do to protect our work but you're welcome to contact me privately by phone tomorrow and we can talk a few things over.

James

[Lee Smith]

This doesn't sound like a formal partnership to me.

Generally speaking, partnerships never last. One partner always feels that the other is getting the better deal. The answer is to write up a contact between the two of you, and spell out the terms and conditions of your alliance.

If it were me, I would contact an attorney to draw up a contract.

Lee

[ucki]

Near to crab mentality is what you call this situation wherein one doesn't want to be surpassed by the others so he or she will do anything to make your name bad. If you think that your partner is doing nasty things behind you then why don't you speak to him/her. Confronting can be a way to resolve things and if it doesn't work then better not to be his partner if possible.

[no23rman]

I won't give away on the forum what we do to protect our work

why not, i thought this is a place to share?...no?

[k rytz]

Did you try telling your partner about it? Sometimes partnership doesn't last unless you tell what's wrong with each other. Although it might hurt for the opposite side, it might help in creating partnership a better one.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Guest

[milanm]

You could implement some on timer scripts that would block important features after a period of time, hide them somewhere inside some other script, and keep them exclusively editable with your account or just dont report their existence. If the developed solution is worth protecting it should have a number of scripts and calculations where you could hide this. Of course, if your partner is a FileMaker master but just lazy to do the job himself, he will be able to find them if he expects this to happen.

The best is tough to avoid working with people that you cant trust in the first place but i guess this was not your question. It would be nice if FileMaker had a "Super Administrator" priviledge set to address these issues, that way we could still sell an open solution to the client but have a bit of protection just in case something goes wrong.

[innodat]

You could implement some on timer scripts that would block important features after a period of time

I'm not sure if this is good advice... you'll just run into legal problems yourself down the road. Especially if blocking access to the solution harms the client(s) for which it was developed.

Contracts, contracts, contracts. Specify intellectual property and ownership. Specify how you're working together. Define your partnership. It's like prenup. You just have to do it.