A software developer’s question arrived:

I assigned copyright to a client for an mobile app, can I develop a new similar app to sell?

That question comes down to what’s in your original agreement, and in particular whether (and how) ‘derivative works’ were included or excluded. You might want a lawyer to look it over.

Here’s my non-lawyer view: In the most restrictive case, where you sold everything as a “work for hire” and agreed not to create derivative works, you still have the right to create a new similar app to sell, but only if you use none of the code and images and development work used for the original app. Start entirely from scratch. That’s basically how the Compaq computer was created as a clone for the IBM PC, but Compaq took an extra step: One team created a set of requirements for a clone of the IBM BIOS software, and another team, with no overlap, wrote the new BIOS.

Put another way, if i write an article for a magazine (remember those?), on any given topic, and I’m paid for it, I can still write another article on a similar topic for some other magazine, and get paid for it. And I’ve done exactly that. The results changed dramatically because the audience changed, but the initial topic was the same. Your knowledge gained during the first project is yours. You’ve only sold the product of that knowledge.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

Weather’s changing here in Maryland. Seasonal, mostly. But we had polar vortex brutal cold last Winter. There’s bridge construction going on between here and Baltimore, with lane closures both promised and complex, changing with rush hour traffic flow. And the super-flu is working its way East. Makes me want to work from home, and connect remotely into computers for work. I’m ready to telecommute; are you?

Telecommutes and remote control for business computers require software. Several types exist; not all of them work for telecommuting.

• Remote Repair: This is for remoting into a computer for repairs or training, and it requires a person at the computer being controlled, to click a link or run a program. The software used for the connection goes away after the connection is closed, so you can’t log back in without starting over.
• Managed Services: This is for working on computers unattended. I use a program like this, that lets me control hundreds of computers on-demand. While it can be used for working remotely, perhaps for an entire office, it’s not the economical choice for telecommuting.
• Remote Login: This is for telecommuting. Like the managed services software, it can connect to an unattended computer, but it will generally be easier to use, and add features like remote printing (print in the office, to your home printer), and remote sound (you hear the office computer’s sounds from home).

There are some other considerations before choosing to telecommute. If your office has gone to the cloud, just log into the cloud servers directly from home. Check with your MIS (management information systems) department first, to see if they have any limitations in place; some systems will only allow logins from work locations. If you run processor-intensive programs, like dictation and speech recognition, it’s better to install those locally, and then just send the completed documents to the work machine.

In Maryland, call us at 410-871-2877 for help getting up and running with telecommuting. We’ve worked with many programs, and can recommend both free and paid products for most requirements. Outside Maryland, we may still be able to help, by remote login, of course.

The largest hurricane/noreaster/superstorm ever recorded is on the way to the Mid-Atlantic. Yikes. Ready here, and I’ll be available for power-related computer and network repairs once the storm passes and power is restored, for anyone in Carroll County, Maryland.

It’s getting late for backups now, but you should always have these backups for each computer:

• There should be a full-image backup of the hard drive, on a removable device, usually an external drive, less than 3 months old, for restoring a burnt/crashed hard drive
• There should be a documents backup, not older than the amount of work that you can easily recreate, on a removable device. For businesses, that’s usually one day old.
• There should be another documents backup, from a week or two older than your newest backup, in case the newest backup is incomplete, lost, or zapped.
• A backup device that is removable, but still plugged into your computer when a storm arrives, doesn’t count as a backup.
• Finally, there should be an online backup of documents. Online backups should be encrypted before leaving your computer.

Overall, you’re aiming for three copies of all data, on two different types of devices, and one copy of data that is off-site. All of these backups can be automated. Ask me how, if you’re in central Maryland.

Jerry Stern is webmaster at PC410.com and Startupware.com.