Tamra and Jack batted about:
>> I personally feel that for the most part the client owns the
>> graphics (it's usually their logo, for example)
>
>Owns the graphics flat-out? What if they repurpose your work into other
>mediums, such as a CD-Rom, magazine article or book? I think these rights
>need to be clearly laid out in a contract.
Regardless of how Tamra feels, US Copyright Law states otherwise: unless
created by an employee of a company or under a work for hire agreement, the
artist owns the graphics. In the kind of heavily graphic sites that we
create, that makes a difference to me: usually the company's logo is just a
tiny part of the graphics in our web sites.
I agree that rights must be hashed out in a contract. Trying to recover any
rights after the fact is nearly impossible.
It's safe to assume that the client owns the rights to the company's own
logo, since had there ever been a contract with the designer, it wouldn't
make any sense for the rights to have been assigned any other way. But as
for a design incorporating a client's logo--that would have to be specified
by a contract. Keep in mind that the Georgia chapter of the Graphic Artists
Guild has succeeded in getting a law through the state legislature
requiring printers to contact graphic designers for copyright release
before ever reprinting a job for which they have the film on file.
Presumably under the Georgia law, the designer owns the rights to the
layout of a print project regardless of whether or not it incorporates a
client's logo.
Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/
CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/
Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm
Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/artists/
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