That website you paid for. Who owns the copyright? You? Are you sure? Did the web designer actually assign you copyright? In writing?...

That logo you paid for. Who owns the copyright? You? Are you sure? Did the graphic designer actually assign you copyright? In writing?...

It's worth checking to ensure you will have full legal rights to any design work (if desired) before you have it commisioned. If you don't, it always belongs to the originator.

Chase it now before it's too late.

ah, an excellent note, but how do you make sure who owns the copy right? do you request that from the designer/coder?

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Sohaib

I explain to my customers before beginning the work for them, during the consultation, that anything I produce for them and is paid for is their legal property and they carry full ownership rights to the concepts (as a whole) and the sources.

It's a failsafe which can never go wrong.

Yes - but it needs to be negotiated in advance.

As the designer/coder is the originator (and, by default, the legally recognised copyright holder of the work) they need to assign it to the client in writing (if ownership of copyright is what's desired by the client).

A professionally responsible designer/coder should highlight the options to the client before the project commences, not afterwards.

Hmm, good to know, thanks for pointing that out .

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That is a good question. You can copyright your website with the Federal Copyright office which covers html code, website screen displays, drawings, artwork, and about 60 other elements. It's a pretty quick and inexpensive process and gives you undisputable ownership.

yah thanks for sharing your thought!

interesting topic and ideas, then legal comes into handy, tedious work I suppose. but deal about the copyright thing between the coder/designer and the buyer should be considered in the negotiation as stated above.

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A lot of times if there is a contract involved, it should always be written out. Usually the only time something like this comes up is whenever a non-unique product is sold.

And it's usually brought up because the buyer was unaware that his product wasn't unique (his fault, he should've done his homework or asked).

Either way though, as a designer, they should always give full rights to any project design that they do (granted that the client has paid for it). Why not? The only other thing that I can see them charging for is royalties, and not many people do that any more.

Yes, a contract is very important. Make sure you go and check up on those things. No one likes to get screwed.