I'm going to ramble for a moment...

Because of the availability of software and training that individuals
are able to obtain, they are able to make websites.  They then begin
doing this for individuals/clients for fees.  However, effort is never
taken to draft contracts that are legally correct and encompassing (such
as taking into account copyright issues).  From a "business" point of
view, I pay someone to create a site for me, it own it.  I can do
whatever I want with it.  From a law standpoint, I can not.

Would this be a correct "summary" Doug?

Another question I have as well:  What if I wrote all of the copy, and
maybe even took all of the pictures?  Now the content is my creation,
but the coding/layout is the vendor's creation.  Would I have the right,
under "first sale doctrine", to make changes to what is "mine" as long
as I don't change the underlying code?  How far can this be took?  Is it
legal to underline something that wasn't before?

I guess this is why this is always referred to as the "gray area of the
law" when it comes to internet and intellectual property rights.

Jeremy Brown



-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Isenberg [mailto:disenberg(at)gigalaw.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 11:25 AM
To: jeremy(at)localnetamerica.com; 'dale'; hwg-business(at)hwg.org
Subject: RE: Website ownership

At 11:16 AM 10/22/02, jeremy wrote:
>Wouldn't that then be the case if the agreement specifically said that
>you can not sell the site, or that they are leasing it, etc?  If it
>doesn't say any of these things, then aren't they free to sell the site
>under the "first sale doctrine", or am I not understanding this
>correctly?

         The "first sale doctrine" applies, according to the U.S.
Copyright 
Act, only to "a particular copy... lawfully made."  And, it gives the 
possessor only the right to "sell or otherwise dispose of" that
particular 
copy.  The doctrine does not allow the new possessor to exercise other 
copyright rights in the work -- such as the right to reproduce,
distribute, 
display, prepare derivative works of or perform the work.

Doug Isenberg
Attorney at Law
Editor & Publisher, GigaLaw.com (http://www.GigaLaw.com)
Author, "The GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law" (Random House, October 2002)

(http://www.GigaLaw.com/guide)

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