4

I am from an Europe country, I work online and get orders on freelancer websites.

Few months ago, I had a customer hiring me to do some Bitcoin-related coding, I'm one of their developers for 6-7 months now.

I have already created 2 of their main projects (they have like 7-8). The code I wrote had nothing illegal in itself as far as I understand (basically I wrote a system in which users sign up for my customer's services, and get notifications, deposit addresses etc, and I delivered the source)

Today, I saw some very bad claims about them online, which I'm not sure if true or fake.

But I'm still really worried...

I have only received money for my programming, even lower than usual fee (because I needed the money).

My question is, am I responsible for what they do with my code?

I don't know anymore if their business is legit, should I stop working for them immediately? or I can continue if I'm not sure?

Am I already in trouble?

P.S. I have generalized anxiety issue, and this constant stress doesn't let me sleep, so any help is really appreciated.

Maj
  • 51
  • 5
  • 2
    Does this answer your question? Can the Developer of a Program be penalized if it is used illegally? –  Dec 17 '19 at 05:32
  • @Nij Thank you, that's for the US, I hope it applies to EU as well – Maj Dec 17 '19 at 06:45
  • If you think working with them will harm your reputation, you may decide to stop for business purposes. Just think of another client wants to hire you; would they have doubts because you worked for X company? – Brandin Dec 17 '19 at 08:06
  • However, you can reasonably expect to be questioned by police or similar authorities... that alone may require you to get a lawyer "just in case", so could be costly. I know of someone who spent years in prison in China because of something like this, but they admitted (to the police) they had a suspicion their code could be used for wrongful purposes... and didn't immediately report their suspicion to the police. – the gods from engineering Sep 07 '21 at 06:47

2 Answers2

5

As a baseline, you may assume that your code will be used legally. It sounds like this still applies in your case: there is an entirely reasonable and legal use for login code, so you had no reason to assume that there might be a problem. This puts you legally in the clear.

To be liable, you'd need to know or at least reasonably suspect that your code would be used to violate the law.

MSalters
  • 5,629
  • 14
  • 18
  • Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Finally I can have a good night sleep. – Maj Dec 17 '19 at 16:47
1

If you write code, and your employer uses it for illegal purposes, that in itself doesn't make you liable.

If you write software, and due to the nature of the software you knew or you should have known that it will be used for illegal purposes, that would likely make you liable.

gnasher729
  • 34,028
  • 2
  • 46
  • 88