[VPM] where would I find examples of software business contracts (for services)?

[Peter Scott]

At 04:45 PM 5/5/2008, Darren Duncan wrote:
>I expressly want to keep this simple and I don't want to have to involve a
>lawyer in the drafting of the contract, and I don't need any third party
>witnesses.  I also don't want to use a fill-in-the-blanks program to write
>it for me.  The whole contract should fit on a single 8x11 page at normal
>fonts, if not within half a page.

ECONFLICT.

I think there's a reason you didn't find anything in Google.  There are 
too many questions affecting the outcome.  And a lawyer will laugh at 
the idea at fitting such a contract within half a page.  In which 
jurisdiction should conflicts be arbitrated?  Do you require conflicts 
to go to binding arbitration?  What is the license to be applied to 
artifacts created under contract?  If your client is located in the 
United States what clauses are necessary?  Those are a tiny sampling of 
issues you should address if you want your clients to take your 
contract seriously.

Also, invariably a corporate client will have their own contract and 
want you to sign it, rather than the other way around.  The two of you 
negotiate and decide which contract you want to modify to suit both 
your needs.  The client will have things in their contract that you 
will not have in yours, for example, E&O insurance limits.  At that 
point a lawyer may be invaluable.

If there were a generic contract that would suit your needs you would 
have found it on Google.  Bite the bullet and get a lawyer.
-- 
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies
http://www.perldebugged.com/
http://www.perlmedic.com/