[thelist] When can the client keep the product as their own?

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Wed Dec 5 20:08:42 CST 2001


> From: "Faye Tarzwell(FayeC)" <ftarzwell at fayec.com>
> 
> After asking some questions for a friend some time ago I found out
> that most developers recognize e-commerce sites or modules as subject
> to copyright and therefore they are not products that the client, who
> paid for them, can really keep or do whatever he wants to do with
> them. Now I am wondering...if you are an employee of a company who
> wants to put an e-commerce site online will your programming be
> considered yours or the company's? In which cases the client can keep
> whatever you did (graphic design, programming, etc) as his own and is
> there any specific circunstances where the work performed by an
> employee is rightfully the client's or the company's?

disclaimer: IANAL

if you are an employee, your employer owns the work you do... all 
of it...the employee keeps squat... 

if you are a vendor, the client keeps what they already own (copy, 
logos, imagery, etc.), and they have the rights to use the software 
you develop (assuming you develop any)... i do not consider HTML 
or JS to be software, the client gets that... all of this, of course, is 
predicated on an agreement that says so -- you could have an 
agreement that says exactly the opposite if eveyone's nuts...

more likely than not, the e-commerce piece will be licensed to the 
client, preventing them from reselling it (and cutting into your 
business with your own product)...

(others will come along with more detailed, legal precedents, i hope)

ok, now why do you ask?





More information about the thelist mailing list