[consulting] Copyright

[Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg]

While IANAL, here's a part of our standard contract that deals with this:
---

 *Proprietary Rights*.

The Drupal software programs used by Consultant Firm, and all of the
associated modules and themes installed on the Company Website are licensed
under a GNU General Public License, and all code and techniques shall be
licensed as the same and may be submitted back to the Drupal software
community as the Consultant Firm sees fit. Nothing in this Agreement shall
preclude the Consultant Firm from using in any manner or for any purpose it
deems necessary the know-how, techniques or procedures acquired or used by
Consultant Firm in the performance of the Website Services (the
"*Drupal-Related
Techniques and Procedures*"), and same shall remain Consultant Firm's sole
and exclusive intellectual property.  To the extent necessary for operation
of the Company Website, the Consultant Firm grants to the Company a
non-exclusive and non-transferrable license to use the Drupal-Related
Techniques and Procedures.
---

In my opinion, a client that ask for IP rights over your Drupal related work
is equivalent to an author writing* The Best Book of all Time* on MS Office
and then claiming that, because of their brilliant writing, they now own
Office and everyone who uses Office must now pay them a royalty. They own
the site, but the tools aren't theirs, and if they need IP rights over
everything that runs their site/application then they shouldn't use Open
Source.

--
Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
Partner | Business Lead
Zivtech, LLC
http://zivtech.com
alex at zivtech.com
office: (267) 940-7737
cell: (215) 866-8956


On Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 7:48 AM, Jeremy Weiss <eccentric.one at gmail.com>wrote:

>  From Circular 9, by the US Copyright Office (www.*copyright*
> .gov/circs/circ09.pdf)
>
>
>
> Under the 1976 Copyright Act as amended (title 17 of the United States
> Code),
>
> a work is protected by copyright from the time it is created in a fixed
> form. In
>
> other words, when a work is written down or otherwise set into tangible
> form,
>
> the copyright immediately becomes the property of the author who created
> it.
>
> Only the author or those deriving their rights from the author can
> rightfully
>
> claim copyright.
>
> Although the general rule is that the person who creates a work is the
> author
>
> of that work, there is an exception to that principle: the copyright law
> defines a
>
> category of works called “works made for hire.” If a work is “made for
> hire,” the
>
> employer, and not the employee, is considered the author. The employer may
>
> be a firm, an organization, or an individual.
>
> To understand the complex concept of a work made for hire, it is necessary
>
> to refer not only to the statutory definition but also to its interpretation
> in cases
>
> decided by courts.
>
>
>
>
>
> Basically, I've always been told by various attorney's that unless my
> agreement with a client specifically stated that it wasn't a work for made
> for hire situation, then it was. YMMV, IANAL, etc.
>
>
>
> -jeremy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* consulting-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:
> consulting-bounces at drupal.org] *On Behalf Of *George Lee
> *Sent:* Saturday, April 24, 2010 7:55 AM
> *To:* consulting at drupal.org
> *Subject:* [consulting] Copyright
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> When folks are doing contract work developing modules, is it typical to
> retain copyright over code or to give copyright to the folks who are
> contracting out to you? Do folks have legal contract language for both
> scenarios?
>
> Peace, community, justice,
> - George
>
> _______________________________________________
> consulting mailing list
> consulting at drupal.org
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
>
>
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