Originally posted by: boatillo
So any work anyone does at their job, whether related to their job or not, is always 100% owned by their employer? I find that hard to believe. I know when a business hires an independent web designer, unless that person/company transfers all copyright ownership to the business that hired them then any web design done by them is owned by them. Why then does it belong to the company when they simply asked an in-house person to design a website (at pay unrelated to web design work, basically free) and never did a written copyright release?
Originally posted by: boatillo
So any work anyone does at their job, whether related to their job or not, is always 100% owned by their employer? I find that hard to believe. I know when a business hires an independent web designer, unless that person/company transfers all copyright ownership to the business that hired them then any web design done by them is owned by them. Why then does it belong to the company when they simply asked an in-house person to design a website (at pay unrelated to web design work, basically free) and never did a written copyright release?
EDIT: Actually some of the costs were from my personally owned software. I used my personal copy of Adobe CS3 (Photoshop + a little Dreamweaver) in the creation of the website, as well as my personal camera for all image captures.
Originally posted by: DeviousTrap
Originally posted by: boatillo
So any work anyone does at their job, whether related to their job or not, is always 100% owned by their employer? I find that hard to believe. I know when a business hires an independent web designer, unless that person/company transfers all copyright ownership to the business that hired them then any web design done by them is owned by them. Why then does it belong to the company when they simply asked an in-house person to design a website (at pay unrelated to web design work, basically free) and never did a written copyright release?
You can't be serious, can you? They're paying you to sit on your ass for 8 hours a day. Nobody gives a fuck what your job title is or your original job requirements. As long as you're sitting there, you are to do whatever your employer wants you to do, plain and simple. And, everything that you do there during those 8 hours is automatically property of the employer as they're paying you to do it. Don't believe me? Read your employee handbook/rules/regulations (or whatever they call it) about the rules of who retains property rights, I'm sure it's mentioned.
And nobody has a website designed for them without also purchasing all copyright laws. There may be agreements where the web designer retains the right to have their name appear at the bottom of the page, but under no condition would the designer have any rights to the website; it's simple work for hire.
Originally posted by: boatillo
Geez you people sure are ridiculously vicious! You remember that time when you didn't know the answer to something, so you asked someone else who might know? Wow, yea advice! Let's see....no copyright lawyer sitting beside me, don't know one and don't want to pay one, who else might know....oh ya! Possibly experienced individuals who are completely disconnected from the situation!
Thanks for the advice. Next time you might want to remember that everyone doesn't know everything like you do.
Originally posted by: paulxcook
I wish someone would've quoted the OP so I could know exactly what was going on.