Employee versus Independent Contractor. Clifford Aymes was hired by Jonathan Bonelli of Sun Island Sales, Inc, to create a computer program for Sun Island to use in maintaining records of its cash receipts, inventory, sales, figures, and other data. No agreement was reached as to ownership rights in the program that Aymes developed, called CSALIB. Aymes did most of his programming at the Sun Island office. Although Bonelli gave Aymes frequent instructions as to what he wanted from the program, Aymes generally worked alone and enjoyed considerable autonomy in his work. He worked fairly regular hours, but he was not always paid by the houroccasionally, he submitted bills (invoices) to Sun Island for his work. Aymes never received any employee benefits, such as health insurance, and Sun Island never withheld federal and state taxes from Aymes's paycheck; nor did it pay any Social Security taxes on Aymes's earnings. When Bonelli unilaterally cut Aymes's hours in violation of an alleged oral agreement, Aymes left Sun Island and demanded compensation for Sun Island's use of CSALIB. Bonelli refused to pay Aymes for the program's use and also stated that he would not pay Aymes 14,560 in back wages unless Aymes signed a form releasing all rights in CSALIB. Aymes then sued Bonelli and Sun Island for copyright infringement, and the court had to decide who owned the copyright in the program. Central to the determination of this issue was whether Aymes was an employee of Sun Island or an independent contractor. What should the court decide, and why?
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