[thelist] Copyright best practices for redesigns

Luther, Ron ron.luther at hp.com
Wed Jul 16 13:56:31 CDT 2003


Hi Gang,

Interesting discussion!

But it leaves me with a question or two (particularly since the 'redesign' 
aspect of the topic line seems to have been overlooked):

<set up /> Let's say that .joe builds a very nice site for company 'x'.
A Cold Fusion site that degrades gracefully and incorporates an elegant 
use of JavaScript.

Some time later, company 'x' hires JohnL. to completely re-do the site. 
JohnL. uses a proprietary report generator and a completely different 
server-side solution -- in short, a complete make-over from the technical 
side ... but, in the course of that make-over notices the elegant external 
JS file and the nice functions therein ... and decides to keep those 
intact (in full or in part).

Q1: That strikes me as "okay". But is it really? Or does it open JohnL. 
and/or company 'x' to some liability issues from disaffected .joe?

Q2: JohnL. likes that JS file sooooo much, he starts using it for other 
customer sites. This strikes me as "not okay". But is it? Or is it a 
'knowledge gained on-the-job' kind of thing?


Curious,

RonL.
(Who's really not interested in adding 30k of 'credits' to everything 
he builds just because he may have gleamed an idea or a few lines of 
code here and there.)


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