OT:Re: your views on copyrights

[Lane Allen]

At 11:38 PM 5/7/98 -0400, you wrote:

[snip]

>        The freelance artist owns the work, and that's that, and sells the

>right to reproduce (copy - "copyright," see?) it . Now, many buyers refuse

>to buy anything less than "all rights," and many artists sell off all

>rights too easily, in the belief that they need to do this to generate

>work, but that's a different discussion. Of course, if you're drawing a

>paycheck from da man, you're giving your life away, but at least you eat on

>a regular basis.

[snip]


We are going through this with a client right now:

-----

10. Credit Acknowledgement

Client may grant the inclusion of a hyperlink credit line that 

acknowledges the involvement of Prototyp3 in the design and 

development of the websites. The exact wording and placement 

of the credit line will be at the discretion of Client.


11. Ownership

Client will retain copyright and ownership of all HTML, web page 

coding, artwork, graphic elements and unique website design 

elements created specifically for the Client websites that have 

been accepted as final product and published on the websites.

-----


This is some of the revisions that they want us to do for the

proposal. I personally just find this unethical as heck. If we 

pass on all rights, then there is no protection for us as the

creators/designers and we *are* developing the whole thing.

We will be getting a nice chunk of change, but still leaves us

wide open for some difficulties. We don't mind if they take the

Web site and print the artwork to promote the site because

we will be making money off that; not through additional

purchasing of copyrights, but through a percentage of what

the Web site generates. Believe me, I've read dozens of books

within this month trying to determine what is proper. Any

comments on how we should proceed with this? We *have*

to find a copyright lawyer! Errr! I am wondering what others

have been "granting" to their clients in similar situations?


Heck, we dropped one Web design firm because they wanted

all copyrights with no credits being referenced to us, and we

were designing *everything*. True, it was money coming in,

but is it so wrong that we want our name on the work that

we did? It is the strongest way we have of marketing ourselves

besides throwing it in our portfolio, which the prospective client

has to find out in the first place...


My head hurts from thinking about all of this, so I'll leave it

at that. If anyone wants to comment on this and spare the

list, you can email me at <

lan3prototyp3 [dot] com

>. And sorry

to the list for being off topic, but I feel that it has some relevance 

in everything that we do.


btw, some good materials for those that want more information,

get the Graphic Artists Guild's (GAG) Pricing and Ethical 

Guidelines, currently in it's 9th edition. *Wonderful* source for

just about everything from print to digital media. You can find

it at Borders, or you can order a copy from their Web site at

<www.gag.org>. You can pick it up for around $30 US.



_________________________________________________________

Lane Allen :

lan3prototyp3 [dot] com

 : Visual Designer

P  R  O  T  O  T  Y  P  3 : www.prototyp3.com






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