[thelist] Copyright best practices for redesigns

chris chris at mindsparkmedia.com
Wed Jul 16 13:04:17 CDT 2003


Wow,
That's exactly the opposite of my understanding of website copyright laws
(in the U.S.). But I should have been more specific - I was refering to the
underlying code of a website, not the content

As I understand it, unless the developer is a bona-fide employee, it's tough
to prove a "work for hire" relationship. If the work for hire test
requirements can't be met, then a license assignment must be made, which was
my question... Are listees doing this?

A couple references 
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000/landau-2000-04.html
http://www.laderapress.com/laderapress/noname2.html






--> -----Original Message-----
--> From: Seb [mailto:seb at poked.org] 
--> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 10:01 AM
--> To: chris at mindsparkmedia.com; thelist at lists.evolt.org
--> Subject: Re: [thelist] Copyright best practices for redesigns
--> 
--> 
--> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 09:52:36 -0700, chris 
--> <chris at mindsparkmedia.com> wrote:
--> 
--> > When doing a redesign for a client, do most people on 
--> this list ensure 
--> > that
--> > the previous developer has licensed rights to the client to create
--> > derivative works (i.e. modify) the website?  How do you 
--> generally broach 
--> > the
--> > topic with clients who don't even realize they don't own 
--> the copyright to
--> > their websites?
--> 
--> actually the client will probably always retain the 
--> copyright to their 
--> website, because it has been purchased from the developer. It's the 
--> developer that doesn't retain the copyrights to the work.
--> 
--> Most design work will fall under the category of 
--> work-for-hire, and unless 
--> a contract states specifically that the developer retains 
--> rights, they 
--> won't. A developer has absolutely no copyright claim at all 
--> to things like 
--> logos, content, layout, etc, unless contractually those rights are 
--> transferred to the developer.
--> 
--> Of course, the thing about copyright is that derivative works are 
--> permissable, so it's fine to copy a layout, graphic, etc., 
--> as long as you 
--> make it sufficiently different from the original that some 
--> creative effort 
--> can be shown.
--> 
--> - seb
--> 
--> --
--> http://poked.org
--> 



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