[thelist] Copyright best practices for redesigns

[Seb]

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

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