If I had a concept/idea and wanted to pay or work with a dev to produce the idea (or get it started at least) what can I do to ensure they don't just run away with my idea?

If the work was being done exclusively online (no rl contact, pay via paypal) how do I protect my idea from being stolen? Would it have to be based on their word?




Looking for all opinions regarding this matter. I really want to start working on developing this website concept, and don't mind paying a bit to get it started but I don't want my idea to be ripped before I even have a chance at the market with it.

develop the website offline

you might wanna check all of apple's patents first. if it's not there, then patent it.

Don't think I can patent a website concept.



Well there goes the 'being developed exclusively online (no rl contact' part

there are non-disclosure agreements and non-compete stuff you can have them sign. but that's just legally protecting your idea. if he steals it anyway, you'll have to hire an attorney and spend quite a bit of time and money in a civil lawsuit.

if your idea is gonna be the next big thing, spend the year learning how to do it yourself. even then, other people can copy it once it goes live. if your idea isn't really that big, then the developer would much rather have the 50$/hr you pay them than the months of investment of time building it themselves. considering that your idea is essentially to create a portal using a forum and other services (to somehow sell stuff from your garage?), i doubt anyone's gonna try to "steal" that per se.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Aug 27 2013 09:14pm

Find trustworthy devs and partners or learn the skills on your own.

As for how to find trustworthy individuals, maybe you're better off finding ppl rl rather than online.

Consider acquiring a good enough understanding of the technical problematics of your project so that you can pay a dev to do the more general tasks one by one before you unveil the core of your idea to him. This way you can gauge his skill, professionalism and integrity beforehand.

Not a bad idea. Get the idea created in separate cells and combine at the end to protect the idea. Will likely use this tactic.

Don't do this, it's incredible stupid. Find a competent developer, have a lawyer draw up a non-disclosure/non-compete agreement and have him sign it and a contract. You will need to get a lawyer and incorporate yourself as an LLC or similar no matter what you do. If you don't do these things you are destined to fail horribly due to managerial incompetence.

Note taken. Would I be able to draft a NDA/NCA on my own? I know it's not too difficult to create/register a business.

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring13/cos217/lectures/24Lawyers.pdf

Here's a short overview of intellectual property and the like. Honestly found it to be a pretty boring lecture :P