This interesting excerpt is from:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ivanlove/written.html
which discusses the reasons why a designer and site owner would want a
written contract:
<quote>
The United States Copyright Act of 1976 states that the owner of all the
rights in copyright is the creator, or author, of those rights. This means
that from the moment that the designer creates something copyrightable and
it becomes fixed in some tangible medium of expression, the copyright rights
to that creation belong solely and exclusively to the designer. The site
owner has no rights of any sort in that creation.
Section 201 of the United States Copyright Act states the following, in
part:
Sec. 201. Ownership of copyright
(a) Initial Ownership. - Copyright in a work protected under this title
vests initially in the author or authors of the work.
Section 204 of the same Copyright Act goes on to state in part:
Sec. 204. Execution of transfers of copyright ownership
(a) A transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is
not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the
transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or
such owner's duly authorized agent.
Some of this may look familiar. It's a relative of our old friend "The
Statute of Frauds" again. And taken together, what these provisions of the
United States Copyright Act mean is that if the site owner does not get a
written contract, signed by the designer, the site owner may end up owning
nothing.
</quote>
So, if I read this right, when there is no written contract the rights of
ownership fall in the favor of the designer. Which translates to "if you
have any handshake deals, then you're better off than your client and it's
your client who has been most foolish".
Any comments?
Jack
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