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Hey all,
I have a situation... My wife paid another performing artist to create a website for her, which in their arrangements included hosting.
For my understanding this is a work for hire, since he would not have made this website otherwise, without her payment.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
Now that the registry of her URL is coming up, he does not want to send us the files for the site so we can reload it onto the hosting plan that I have for my websites. He claims it is not their policy to release files. We like the base design, while the mystery meat navigation is slow and buggy, the base of the design is nice. We offered to keep his design credits unless a complete overhaul occurs, since we like the visual layout. For my knowledge, my wife paid for:
1. graphic design of the site
2. hosting from web release until this summer, seperately from basic design cost
3. registry of her URL, which was put in her name under his business.
What to do?
Do we keep the base design and re-script the back-end if he chooses to not send the files of the complete site?
What exactly are you buying when you contract for a site to be built, if not the files that comprise the site?
Recommendations?
Many thanks,
MT
I have a situation... My wife paid another performing artist to create a website for her, which in their arrangements included hosting.
For my understanding this is a work for hire, since he would not have made this website otherwise, without her payment.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
Now that the registry of her URL is coming up, he does not want to send us the files for the site so we can reload it onto the hosting plan that I have for my websites. He claims it is not their policy to release files. We like the base design, while the mystery meat navigation is slow and buggy, the base of the design is nice. We offered to keep his design credits unless a complete overhaul occurs, since we like the visual layout. For my knowledge, my wife paid for:
1. graphic design of the site
2. hosting from web release until this summer, seperately from basic design cost
3. registry of her URL, which was put in her name under his business.
What to do?
Do we keep the base design and re-script the back-end if he chooses to not send the files of the complete site?
What exactly are you buying when you contract for a site to be built, if not the files that comprise the site?
Recommendations?
Many thanks,
MT
posted by:
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San Francisco
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Re: Advice regarding work for hire?
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 8:33 AM"He claims it is not their policy to release files. "
Tell the artist to upload it to the site of your choosing. That's not releasing the files.
Releasing the files is giving you the original files to.
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Re: Advice regarding work for hire?
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 10:44 AMThank you for the alternate method to accomplish the same goal!
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Re: Advice regarding work for hire?
Sat, April 26, 2008 - 4:00 PMi don't understand why those files aren't yours. That seems odd. I wouldn't do that to my clients. You should have the right to change everything after its done. This why you should use a legit designer and not just some web nerd who has a web design hobby or learn to create something simple yourself. Simple websites are the best websites anyways.
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Re: Advice regarding work for hire?
Thu, June 5, 2008 - 2:59 PMAs a web designer myself, I make it a point to state in the original contract that I do not release the original Photoshop files, under the pretense that I don't want someone messing up the original design, and also because often I used stock imagery that I'm not licensed to distribute. What I am hired for is to create a finished product, which they can do what they wish with. Which means all of the code, and all the files necessary to run a website. They own it at that point.
What is your website url? you can probably just grab all of the code of that, unless you've got lots of server-side scripts.
You might want to ask his fellow what it is that would make him happy to release the files to you. What is it he wants? look at the situation not from what you want, but what would make him happy to help you to get what you want. -
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Re: Advice regarding work for hire?
Mon, June 9, 2008 - 11:15 AMYour files are your "work product". You should never release your raw files.
Many times clients negotiate a lower price or make us jump through a few more hoops... at the same price.
By holding onto your original files, you can charge a small fee for doing a few AA's and eventually make up for what you "lost" the first time around. $50 bucks here and there for an AA adds up real fast.
This is what professionals do. It's fair. It's reasonable. They are buying the finished product... not what went into it.
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