Almost every business has a digital presence. Whether it is a local baker or a multinational construction company, both of these companies can have a website. The latest figures show that there are approximately 1.2 billion websites on the Internet and that approximately 200,000 new websites are created every day.
Although it is relatively easy to build a website today, there is a critical question that many businesses ignore – actually have it? The answer may not have a website, including the digital assets they contain.
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What does ‘have’ in your website mean
‘To have’ means intellectual property rights – especially copyrights – in the design and content of a website. In accordance with the UK legislation, like the author of a workpiece Coding a website will be the person who undertakes and complements the project.
In many cases, unless a business staff is lucky enough to have a digital designer, this will be an independent website developer. Simply, paying for commissioning and development does not mean that an enterprise actually becomes ownership.
These rights remain with the Creator unless the company secures a written assignment that transfers the ownership of the copyright in the website design to the business.
Avoiding copyright disputes
Initially, it is important to make a written contract with the developer that confirms that the website design (and any content created) will be transferred to the enterprise immediately in creation within the wage structure.
The good news for those with in -house developers is that the work belongs to the employer, provided that the study is created during employment (and on the contrary, there is no agreement).
Businesses should ensure that the employment contracts are open in the creation types that designers will make during employment and that the employer has these designs.
For employees who have special tasks in creating copyright jobs, enterprises may need to convey the current and future royalties to the employer effectively.
Risks
If an enterprise receives a commission on a website without securing a written assignment at the beginning. e-commerce job) or if the owners want to sell.
While the company may request an implicit license to use the website design and content, it is possible to take the developer to court to install it.
Even then, it will not have copyrights in the business website design – their absence will be a major concern for a potential investor or the buyer of the business.
In addition, a developer may refuse to appoint copyright or try to save a large homework fee. In both cases, this will not be an attractive position to be in a business, especially if a potential investor or recipient is trying to show that it is well organized by handing all legal problems.
When thinking about the copyright on a website, it is also important to consider open source software (OSS). This is often used as short cuts by software developers, but may cause problems.
The reason for this is that the terms of the OSS usually ensure that the code can only be licensed and transferred, so that an entity that deserves a website containing OSS will not have the integrity of the coding used to create it.
In addition to design, businesses need to think about the content of a website and who owns it. For example, designers may have used images of photo libraries (such as getty Images) to be paid for the license.
The designer may even have a picture or text on the internet, where the copyright in this image and text may belong to a third side. This will carry the risk of a copyright violation of action or at least a license fee.
In summary, if businesses want to avoid asking this strange question (do they really have websites?),
- Enter a written agreement with the website developers in which all copyrights in the design are transferred to the business. This should be related to the current and future copyright.
- Make sure that the developer’s company has signed the contract and the personnel or contractor or contractor participating in the creation of the website design sign copyright appointments
- For copyright provisions, review the employment contracts and consider separate agreements to ensure that the copyright belongs to the employer.
- Get the source code of the website design (and any update) so that the business can protect the website by a third party (for example, if the developer exists).
- Check if the developer plans to use any OSS in the website design.
- Check the source of pictures, text and other content of the website. Will the enterprise have the right to copyright or will it be paid for licenses?
- Use it on its own when possible Employees are subject to taking photos and creating the text used on the website – subject to the creation of jobs during employment.
Although the lack of copyright property can harm for enterprises, from stopping merger or sales to heavy homework costs, the truth is that all of which can be reduced by the presence of mind at the beginning of any professional relationship between third -party developers or staff.
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