Source code
What is source code?
Source code is the text of a program as a developer writes it: readable by a person and open to change. The running version that sits on the server is produced from it. Without the source code software can be used but not fixed, extended or moved to another supplier, which is why access to it and the rights over it belong in the contract.
Example
A company has used a bespoke order system for four years. It wants a change, but the original supplier no longer works on the project. The system runs and the data is there — the code is not. The repository sits with the supplier, there is no documentation, and nobody outside knows how a new version is released.
The second supplier has two options: wait for a handover, or write it again. The difference between them is measured in months. On a tidy project the handover is a list: access to the repository, the change history, release instructions, a description of the environments and the outside services, and keys and certificates rotated afterwards. With that, a new team runs the same system on their own infrastructure within days.
Why it matters for a business
Code is the asset that makes the software yours. Without it you stay with one supplier not by choice but by necessity. So ownership is settled at the start, not when the relationship sours.
Two arrangements are commonly confused. Assignment moves the rights to you: you may change the code, hand it to another team and reuse it elsewhere. A licence leaves the rights with the author and grants you defined use, which may be limited to one installation or one purpose. Bulgarian copyright law treats software written by employees differently from software commissioned under a contract, and what the contract does not say still has a direction, so the wording is worth a lawyer reading before signing. With an off-the-shelf CMS, the platform code belongs to someone else and carries its own licence; what is yours is what was built on top.
How we handle this is answered in the questions on the web software page.
What to ask
- Where is the repository, and do you have access from day one?
- Are the rights assigned, or are you granted a licence — and over what exactly?
- Does the handover include documentation and release instructions?
- Which third-party components are inside, and under which licences?
- What precisely is handed over on termination, and within what period?