Just because you pay someone to create a website for your business doesn’t mean that you own it.  Whenever you pay another person to develop a creative work–like a website–you must insist on having a written “work made for hire” contract.  Otherwise, you may not own the copyright for the work.

Under Federal copyright law, the person who produces a creative work owns the copyright, unless it is a work made for hire.  The copyright for a work made for hire is owned by the person or company who pays for it.  What is a work made for hire?  It depends on who creates it.

When a creative work is produced by an employee, it is a work made for hire provided the work is produced within the normal scope of the creator’s employment.  There may be problematic situations where a work is created outside of an employee’s normal scope of employment (an administrative assistant who volunteers to design the company website, perhaps), but in most cases works created by employees will qualify as works made for hire.

Works created by independent contractors present a greater risk.  For these works to qualify as works made for hire, they must meet three requirements:  (1) they must be specially ordered or commissioned; (2) they must fall within a relatively broad group of categories; and (3) both parties must agree, in writing, that the works are works made for hire.  The first two requirements are usually not problems.  The problem is most often the lack of a written contract that makes clear that the works are works made for hire owned by the customer.

Armed with this understanding about the work made for hire doctrine, it should not be too difficult to ensure that a business owner acquires all of the rights in the creative work.  He or she will just require a written work made for hire contract every time he or she commissions a creative work.  One final caution is needed:  creative works come in many forms.  It may (now) be obvious that a work made for hire contract is a good idea for the website developer, but it may be equally important for the people who create custom software, recordings, videos, logos, slogans, brochures, announcements, business plans, instructions, market reports, handbooks, proposals, etc.  Nearly any work that is created is subject to Federal copyright protection.  A savvy business owner will take the steps necessary to ensure his or her ownership of the works he or she commissions.

Have you experienced a dispute over the ownership of creative works?  Tell us about it in the Comments section.