How can I protect my, and my partner&#39;s, work?
<p>I'm a web developer looking for a partner on the "ProgrammerMeetDesigner" community.</p>

<p>Working with a stranger may be tricky, as he could steal my work and I could steal his work (not that I would do it, but you get the point).</p>

<p>What is the most convenient and efficient ways to protect each other's work from each other?</p>

<p>It is not a legal advice but maintain a solid record which can prove ownership in courts, if required in future. </p>

<p>Bit of legal advice:</p>

<p><a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-ownership/" rel="nofollow">Who Owns What- Joint Authorship</a></p>

<p>Contributions in the work have to be inseparable and interdependent for both authors to have copyright in the entire work. As mentioned in the link, if one author writes only one chapter and other wrote the entire book, they are not joint authors for the purpose of having copyright in entire book.</p>

<p><a href="http://copyright.universityofcalifornia.edu/ownership/joint-works.html" rel="nofollow">Similar Advice</a></p>

<p><em>For a number of reasons, collaborators should try to clarify joint ownership interests in a written (or even an oral) agreement – clarifying such issues as ownership and use issues, rights to revise the works, marketing and sharing of any revenue, and warranties against copyright infringement.</em></p>

<p>And co-authors &amp; co-owners are absolutely different thing. I'm sorry, I've to read some text books before providing a proper distinction between the two, but in layman's term imagine a painting can be owned many people who were not necessarily its creators. </p>

copyright intellectual-property international