Design and web site development - more about copyright
This is an important topic, so we want you to be very clear on the details. Yes - it will be your web site. No - you will not have the copyright and ownership of everything designed and developed for your site.
Let's be clear about something. No web development company ever creates everything for your web site starting from nothing. Every web designer and developer uses and re-uses bits of html code, scripts, and server-side coding over and over again. It cuts down on the cost of your web site. Every web designer uses and re-uses menu structures. Again, because it cuts down on the cost of creating your web site. So, one thing that we do not provide to you as the web site owner is the copyright or ownership to any html code, scripts, or server-side coding.
Why not? Because if we assigned the copyright and/or ownership of every element of your web site to you, we would not be able to re-use any of that code, scripts, etc. for our next customer. That would just drive our prices up. And it would make your site more expensive for exactly the same reasons.
And page layout, along with the site navigation is something web developers use and re-use. It's an artistic interpretation. You do not own it - again, because navigation techniques and page layouts get re-cycled into future projects.
And finally, your completed site may well use or contain third-party scripts for which someone else already owns the copyright and has agreed it may be incorporated into your site. Clearly, we can't give you the copyright to someone else's work.
What is our policy?
Anything that you provide is your property, to do with as you see fit. That means the text you provide for us to add to your pages. You own the copyright to that text. It means any and all images and logos that you provide for us to add to your pages. You own the copyright to those.
What you get in addition to that is a royalty-free, licence-free right to display the web site in its entirety. You also have our commitment that we will not change a few words and re-sell 'your' site to a competitor of yours.
What remains the property of halfadot smallwebs, and (where applicable) capable of copyright in favour of halfadot smallwebs, is:
- HTML code
- javascript code
- server side code
- images, photographic or decorative, that we provide
- structure, layout, and the 'look and feel' of the pages
- menu and navigation concepts, and icons
If you have any questions about this topic as they relate to work you are contemplating asking us to do - please ask first.