Do you ever get confused about copyright issues? Many people find
the entire subject mind boggling. Prospective clients often write
and indicate they can't even send me a draft of their work until
I sign a non-disclosure statement.
There's yet another slant on this interesting subject, and it has
to do with editors and webmasters. How do we protect OURSELVES
from being given material that may be copyrighted elsewhere?
Recently, a discussion came up on the list of www.digital-women.com.
The writer, who is a webmaster, felt the need to protect herself AND
emphasize to her clients the importance of providing proper written
authorization/permission for copyrighted materials.
Paula Pierce, of http://hostingct.com/, responded by saying that
she had the following two clauses in her website design contract:
"Copyrights and Trademarks. The client represents to Hosting
Connecticut, LLC and unconditionally guarantees that any elements of
text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished
to Hosting Connecticut, LLC for inclusion in Web pages are owned by the
client, or that the client has permission from the rightful owner to
use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend
Hosting Connecticut, LLC from any claim or suit arising from the use of
such elements furnished by the client.
"Copyright to Web Pages. Copyright to the finished assembled work of
Web pages produced by Hosting Connecticut, LLC is owned the client.
Rights to photographs, graphics, source code, work-up files, and
computer programs are specifically not transferred to the client, and
remain the property of their respective owners."
I contacted Pierce to ask if we could publish her paragraphs and get
her comments on why these paragraphs are important. (Paula, I don't
have to publish the paragraphs if you'd prefer I don't.) Following
is our conversation:
Vorfeld: Businesspeople often create paragraphs like those
above as a result of having had some not-so-good experiences.
Is this the case with you?
Pierce: Happily, no. I started right from the beginning with
this clause in our contract so we wouldn't have any copyright
problems. I spent quite a bit of time researching ways to avoid
problems that other business owners had to learn the hard way.
If a client pawns off someone else's work as their own, the owner
may sue the site owner, the designer, the host, anyone they feel
like suing. Lawsuits are a huge drain on finances and time. All
business owners should protect themselves as much as possible so
they can't become liable for the actions of others.
Vorfeld: Why do you differentiate between "assembled work" and
photographs, graphics, source code, work-up files, and computer
programs?
Pierce: In creating each unique website, we use graphics, photographs,
and code from several different sources including stock photography
companies, script caches, the client, and other sources as well as our
own stockpile of resources. We cannot transfer copyright of particular
scripts, text or images to the client if they are already owned by
someone else, so we separate out the assembled work, which is a unique
product in its entirety and can be owned as a finished product by the
client.
Vorfeld: If an editor or webmaster thinks some of the copy given by
the client is copyrighted elsewhere, what is the proper action to
take? Why?
Pierce: As mentioned in the contract we use, it's the client's
responsibility to make sure they have copyright or permission to use
all info they provide to the webmaster for use on their website. This
technically would protect the designer if the actual owner came
looking for someone to sue.
However, I wouldn't feel comfortable using any material I suspected
was ill-gotten or misrepresented. I'd approach the client, especially
if I had proof that the material was copyrighted by someone else. One
way to check for copyrighted text is to put it on a test page and put
it through www.copyscape.com/.
Paula Pierce
http://hostingct.com/
return to index
| 
