Blogging on Web Development, Graphic Design, and Internet Technology

Copyright and Contracts

I looked into copyright laws concerning web designers and artists in general and I think my head might explode from reading too much legalese. But it seems to me, the best thing an artist can do is retain ownership of their art even if it is created for someone else. When we as designers create a site or piece of art for a client, we should hold on to the copyright for said idea. This way if our idea becomes a billion dollar piece of branding that a company uses, we're entitled to a piece of the pie. Designing a site and elements for a site, web designers should keep ownership of almost everything such as php pages, javascript, pngs, etc. this way we control our ideas and are compensated fairly for them.

The best way to be clear about all this when dealing with a client is to draw up a contract. In the contract we must clearly state what we hold the rights to and what the client is paying for. I'm also finding out contracts should be as clear as possible and not omit the smallest detail.

I looked through several web design contracts and they have several themes in common. Some of the things which should be spelled out are who's hosting, who owns the pages, who's liable if there's a lawsuit, what are the clients or our responsibilities, timelines, and a big one pricing. If you don't state it the contract, you could get bit in the butt by it later.

Clients always seem to have different expectations when it comes to web design. They might think they're entitled to 15 revisions for a site before it costs them a penny, meanwhile as designers, that's hours and hours of work. Or clients might expect to own the pages of a site and think they can change our design and come up with something new, meanwhile our name is at the bottom of this hideous new design hurting our reputation. It's because of things like this contracts need to be drawn up, we can't do business with out them.

Unless, it's a "for hire" situation. For Hire is basically when you work for a design house or development type company. They hire you as an employee, give you work and pay you, but they hold the copyrights. You're the employee and they're the boss so they get ownership. For hire, for clients is normally a bad idea. By giving all rights and ownership of your work to a client you could be severely limiting possible income. It seems to me, if the client wants you to sign over all rights, or work without a contract at all, you should run away from them, far and fast.

So after spending much time pouring over legal documents and copyright law, I've come to the conclusion, keep your ideas your own. As artists we own our ideas and are entitled to be compensated for them. The best way to hold onto our ideas is with a contract. In the contract spell everything out clearly so there's no confusion, and finaly never do business without a contract because you could end up really getting burned.