Law

[Cags]

Websites such as Handango, PocketGear and ClickGamer provide reseller services for companies and developers. Basically what Im wondering is what are the legal obligations for publishing your software though such systems. For instance if I develop an application or game in my own time and wish to try and make a profit from it, it is possible, as far as I can tell, to simply sign up to the sites and have the product online for sale in a matter of minutes. Obviously any money made would have to be declared as a taxable income, but what else needs to be done. Can software be sold under a company name without some kind of legal registration process? I.e. can you just start trading as "Cool Software" or would you just have to sell under your own name. Also where do you stand in terms of copyright. I believe anything you create which is unique is automatically copyrighted is this the case?

Im just interested to hear everyones opinions on anything even remotely related to this topic. I suspect it will vary somewhat dependent on what country you live in and whilst Im from the UK, Im still interested in hearing from any foreigners that care to add their 2p (or 10cents).

Anyone who knows the sites Ive listed at the top will notice they all specialise in mobile computing. Im also interested in hearing peoples opinions on whether the .Net CF is a viable commercial mobile software development platform. Whether it be for games or applications.

 

[rbulph]

You can set up a company if you wish. It will cost probably 200 to buy and youll have a certain amount of ongoing obligations in regard to it such as filing an annual return for which there is a fee of 15. Youll need at least two directors. If you do set up a company your company can have a trading name which is different from its registed name if you wish, and you can trade under that. If you dont set up a company you would be acting as a sole trader, but again you could have a trading name if you wished for your business, you dont have to do business under your own name. But any contracts will have to be in your own name.

As you probably know a company is a legal person in its own right. But is has limited liability so if someone were to have a complaint about the software, and sue you, it would have to sue the company if the company had sold the software to them. Your own personal assets would (generally) be safe from enforcement of any judgment obtained.

If you have a company you can withdraw any profits (i) by paying yourself a salary, (ii) by paying yourself dividends or (iii) indirectly by selling the company. There are tax consequences to all of these.

As for copyright, your code is copyright without any registration. And things such as the visual design of your program would be copyright. But the actual idea of it will not be copyright. For a lot of "inventions" you can get a patent which allows the inventor to stop anyone else from copying the invention for a certain number of years. In the UK a computer programme is not considered to be an invention; in the US I believe it often is.

Hope that helps.

 

[snarfblam]

I believe that algorithms can be patented (in USA). A program itself cant be. But dont quote me on that.

 

[mskeel]

Also where do you stand in terms of copyright. I believe anything you create which is unique is automatically copyrighted is this the case?

Im not sure about UK law, but in the US something is copyrighted simply by writing "copyright" or