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I want to hire a freelancer to fix some bugs on my startup code. How can I protect the code from being stolen?

Thanks

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I heard some entrepreneurs before using the work of a freelancer they test them with any homework, and if they see he is worthy then they trust him for the real thing – Alejandro May 24 '11 at 1:54

5 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

You can't. But if you product is modularized you can expose some modules to the freelancer not the whole product.

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If they are accessing files that you don't feel they need, it could be a red flag. – JeffO Sep 5 '10 at 14:58
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Not necesarily. In all projects I ever was "get all from source repository" was standard practice. – NetTecture Sep 6 '10 at 6:50
up vote -3 down vote

This is called "contract". Ever heard of it? You make a contract specifying damages if the freelancer does that. Then you enforce it using something called a "court".

That said, that is it. Freelancers can still steal your code. There is no protection, except not giving them access to the code, which is kind of hard if... they shall debug it.

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Contract with freelancer can be done, but how you enforce it if it lives in a country that is "far away". Court jurisdiction can't help here. That is why people build trust by making small steps and checking the results. – Ross Sep 5 '10 at 7:08
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You dont. Simply like that. If you see you can not enforce it, do not sign it and get a freelancer in a location you can envforce it. That simple. – NetTecture Sep 5 '10 at 9:42
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Have you had success enforcing contracts through the courts NetTecture? Taking preventative measures is far more effective than trying to chase people through the courts in my opinion. I have tried the court option and I would never willingly go down that path again. Too much money to be lost to lawyers and there is rarely a satisfactory outcome for the plaintiff. Not to mention all the wasted time involved in using this option. – Susan Jones Sep 6 '10 at 2:58
Well, I never had to. I had some lawyers discuss the intrinsics with the freelancers after the fact, though. Happens I live in a civilized country - looser pays costs. – NetTecture Sep 6 '10 at 6:50
up vote 3 down vote

Only hire people with strong reference and want to maintain their reputation. Otherwise, you'll spend too much time trying to police them.

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up vote 2 down vote

Hire someone you know. If you don't know anyone, then just check for references, and also try to create a good work relationship with that person once you start working with him/her. Nowadays is easier to find a lot of information about a person's reputation just by looking online...

In the end, there is really nothing that will prevent someone from stealing code if that is what they really want to do, that is why is a good thing in my own opinion to find people trustworthy and maintain a good relationship with them so you don't have to worry about these things every time you need to hire someone to do a small change to your code.

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up vote 2 down vote

There is a difference.

You can protect your idea from developers, but cannot protect your code, some parts will always be reused but you should not care about code, its the idea that matters.

You need to be a developer yourself (or have at least one trusted developer at hand) to be able to protect your idea from freelancers.

Do the design yourself and target a modular structure. Be clear and precise with requirements as this will help when integrating.

Distribute module development among freelancers and keep the integration part for yourself (or your trusted developer) so only one person will have access to all the code and will know what is being actually done.

The good thing about modular structures is that most of your freelancers will not even have the idea what they are actually building.

This approach is very good and helps in scaling your application too. Only drawback is slightly larger initial costs.

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