Is Your Website Being Held Hostage?

I was reading a post at Karyn Greenstreet’s blog this morning about website ownership.  Because of murky copyright laws that protect graphic work and software work differently than other types of copyrights, you may not actually own your website if you didn’t have a work-for-hire agreement with your designer.

I first heard about this phenomenon at last year’s eWomenPublishing Network Conference in Dallas and was completely blown away with surprise.  I had always operated under the assumption that website design work, like almost all freelance work, is a work-for-hire relationship, i.e. when the client pays the bill, the client owns the work.  One of the authors at last year’s conference told her horror story of finding out that she didn’t own her site when she went to move the site to another hosting company and change designers and was hit with copyright infringement lawsuits.

Here are 2 links that Karen referenced to get more info on this topic:
WebLawResources and Business Week.

Before signing on the dotted line with your designer, check how your designer views this copyright issue. And, if you had a website created for you that you’re still using, re-read your contract or just ask your designer who owns what.  This simple question could be a lifesaver for your online business.