Re: question on ownership

Collette is correct in her previous answer. You DO NOT own the rights to any
of the work or design you do when you are HIRED to do so. This is work for
hire and means that the person who contracted you owns the site. That is
what they paid you for. No one is stealing your work. You got paid for your
services. They are entitled to taking THEIR web site and having another
company maintain it. You may not like it and if you feel this way, you may
not be in the right business.

The question you should be asking yourself is why did they decide to hire
someone else. Once you have a customer, it is your responsibity to maintain
the site as well as the relationship. You must constantly ask the customer
if the site reflects what they are trying to portray. You must get to know
the client and ensure that you are keeping up with any changes their company
is going through. And you must suggest changes to their site to reflect any
changes they are going through. Sometimes that means doing a complete
redesign. Many designers don't like this and think that once the site is up,
that's the way it's going to be forever. That's not giving your client good
service.

It is a common misconception with graphic and web designers that they own
the copyright on everythig they create. Even with a contract, you could
state that you have the right to show this work in your portfolio but you
could not technically state that you own the rights to it.

Technically, even professional photographers do not have the right to hold
back the negatives when you get family photos done or wedding photos. Since
they are hired to take the photos, they do not own the copyrights. You will
notice that all wedding photographers have you sign a waiver before the
shoot which states that they will hold the rights to the pictures. This has
been done for so long that the public does not question it. You have the
right to refuse to sign that waiver and you have the right to request the
negatives but then the photographer will simply refuse to take your photos.

I'm only saying this because, as a designer, you should not be looking at
all of your work as original work. If you are hired to do the work, you are
not creating original ideas. The client is telling you what he/she wants and
you are doing this work in exchange for payment. Even if the client does not
know what he/she wants and you come up with samples, you are doing so at the
client's request. If you created designs on your own and then sold these
designs, then YOU would own the copyright because no one asked you to do
them - they are you own original creations.

The best way to approach graphic and web design is with the state of mind
that you are there to do what the client wants, not what you want. They are
paying you to do what they want. You have to understand that and let go of
this notion that you are "creating" designs for them. It is your job to
guide the client in the right direction as many people don't understand the
first thing about web design. If you are a good designer you will explain to
them what works and doesn't work and why some things are done a certain way.
But in the end if the client wants something a certain way and you don't
like it - tough - you do it their way.

I'm sorry to be so blunt. I just don't think that you are looking at this
the right way.

Andie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Herb Lady" <psalmon(at)cafes.net>
To: <webguroo(at)tampabay.rr.com>; <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 10:02 AM
Subject: RE: question on ownership


: Thank you Paul and everyone else who has responded to my plea.I appreciate
: the time you all took in giving me some advice. It is very appropriate for
: my situation at this time. So far, they have changed the one page with an
: events schedule but kept the banner and layout the same (my work) .I had
: sent an email to all parties involved asking that they remove my work and
: layout but so far I haven't heard a peep from any of them. But I am not
: surprised, since there was a big bruhaha over a contract with another
: company about their newsletter and they broke their contract with them and
: said company lost several thousand dollars. (this company is a friend of
: mine also) And oweing to the fact that main character /client is also an
: attorney, I'm sure she knows the money it would take me to follow thru on
: any of this, so I am going to target the designer themselves.
:
: Sure, if they wanted to let me go -fine, put up a whole new site- fine,
but
: don't steal my work. On the other hand, this site doesn't contain as MUCH
: custom work as I normally do which is a god sent really.
:
: One thing this has prompted me to do (hit me over the head with a hammer)
: is to get new contracts out to ALL my clients this weekend and having
: everyone sign them before I do any more work. <sigh>
:
: I swear, makes you wonder about people you know? What a sad little world
we
: live in.
:
: Patti
:
:

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