the business side of webdesign

[moebius]

Hey all,

I was offered a job recently to create a website for a small company. He asked me and few other people to create a site as a sort of test. He will pick out the best site and hire whoever made it.

He also asked me to confirm that all bits of graphics and content he gives to me is copyright and the company owns it. Which is fair enough..of course they own it. But he also asked me to confirm that all stuff that I make in the "test" will be owned by them as well.

But I wondering...do you think he's trying to get a bunch of people to create sites for him for free? Or is this testing normal practice?

It's kind of a strange situation which is why I'm a bit confused.

[Tom]

The design is yours and yours alone. If he's contracting the design to you, then you should keep the right to that.

If you're employed by him, and then do the design for the company - fair enough, it's the companies. You wouldn't have your name on it personally.

The important part is to distinguish design and content; any content you use from the company is their content. Images, mission statements, product descriptions, logos, slogans etc.

I'd include a common footer along the lines of:

All content is ©XYZ Incorporated, unless otherwise stated.
Website design ©Moebius Smith. All rights reserved.

It's probably not perfect, and I'm by no means a legal expert -- but that's how I'd approach it. :)

Really, if the design is the best, I doubt your respect employer is going to blame you for hanging onto your IP whilst still unemployed. ;)

[shifty.ricky]

Dont agree to that. Say all the stuff made in the test is your copyright other than the content as proved above.

Dont agree to handing over the copyright untill you are paid. If he doesnt like it tell him to go screw.

[moebius]

Yeah you're right. I thought so. It seems like such a dodgy company anyway...property investment and all that crap. I think I'm just gonna leave it and look for something else.

Cheers shifty

[jesush++]

Usually, in the IT biz, once you have a contract with a company, anything you produce is their Intellectual Property, whether it be design, content etc.

[shifty.ricky]

Usually, in the IT biz, once you have a contract with a company, anything you produce is their Intellectual Property, whether it be design, content etc.

There are ways around this. If you are operating through your own Ltd get the company secretary to sign the contract in which case all the IP they accrue will belong to the company. If the coy sec if you wife etc then that could be none :D

[Danny Boy]

I've been doing freelance web design for a few years now, and I've never had anyone ask me to produce a test site. People have wanted to see examples of my work to make sure I can complete the job to a high standard, and that's to be expected. I have heard of people requiring small test sites or something as proof, but thats normally a page or two as a sample. I would possibly consider doing that but never make a complete test site with no guarantee of getting paid at all.

As for the IP stuff, I always assume that any work I am contracted to do becomes the property of whoever is paying me for the work. Otherwise I would have the right to simply delete the site (not including the database containing content) if I was still the sole owner of the code. Now that may well be very wrong, but you see the point I'm trying to make. If someone is paying you to make some software for them then they own the end result. On the other hand, if you are re-using code that you have already written then you will still own the code and incorporating it into a site for a client is giving them permission to use that code, not ownership of it.

Maybe my way of thinking is incorrect and could land me in legal trouble one day, and if thats the case someone PLEASE let me know. But so far the issue of who owns the code has never been an issue. I have my own libraries of functions I use on many sites and will continue to use. Any code I use for a specific site is just for them and won't be duplicated.

[Clarksy]

I'm in this industry and if it were me i'd steer clear. Like Danny Boy i've never been asked to produce a "test" website. Sometimes our company are asked to pitch for work but this never involves more than knocking up a flat visual of the site - indicating things like dsign ideas, where "call-to-actions" go, screen sizes references etc.

This customer of yours sounds like a typical small-medium size business that's trying to save money by avoiding a professional design agency - i dobut they are aware of things like web accessibility and the laws governing internet based business services offerings.

The only reason i'd follow through with this site is if your doing it to build yourself a portfolio.

[moebius]

Yeah, bumping up my portfolio is certainly one reason why I was considering this. They don't have a clue how the web works...he even said to me not to make things too technical for him because he rarely even uses email.

But anyway, he called me again yesterday and we had a chat and it turns out he does just want a flat design..not a fully working site. He just wants to see how I would layout navgation and see the use of colour etc etc. So maybe he's legit.....he only sounds otherwise because he's clueless. I'm gonna give him the flat design as a jpg and give him the rights for it...shouldn't take me more than a coupla of hours.

I'll keep you guys posted. He wanted the design by Friday. I really appreciate the advice guys/gals, thanks again.

[moebius]

Anyway, I promised to keep you all posted so...

it turned out to be a bit weird. He disappeared on me. lol. I only made him a basic homepage. After all that...oh well, I'm not really bothered. It's a lesson to be learnt.