Mary Sunshine <fsrvival@gmail.com> wrote in message:
1188245224.908804.259020@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups. com,

> Hello,
>
> My friend wrote this website: http://www.artskingston.com/ years ago
> as a volunteer, and continues to maintain it.
>
> Within the last year, she became a contract "employee" of the Arts
> Council as office manager. Her duties as such include answering the
> phone, handling correspondence, etc.
>
> The President of the Arts Council (I myself am a Board member)
> recently asked my friend to put "Copyright K.A.C." on the homepage.
>
> We are wondering, by rights, who owns this website?
>
> My sense of fair play tells me that my friend, who is the author, and
> who created it totally as a volunteer would, or should (at least), own
> it. I can see no reason at all why the Arts Council would own it.
>
> The Arts Council has never paid her to create the site, that is, to
> design it. They have not purchased it from her, or offered to purchase
> it from her.
>
> *Can* a website be purchased? or sold? Can she sell this website, i.e.
> the design, to the Arts Council?
>
> The domain name, of course, is the property of the Arts Council, as is
> the hosting space.
>
> If my friend puts the Copyright thing on the website, does that
> thereby make it the property of the Arts Council?
>
> Thanks in advance for any light that any of you may be able to shed on
> this subject.
>
> Mary

The Arts Council "owns" the site. The ownership of the copyright on the
content is a bit murkier because while it was not "work for hire" it
could be construed as a donation.

My advice to her would be not to upset her employer by asking to be paid
for something she did as a donation and to go ahead and put the
"Copyright K.A.C." on the homepage. However she could also add "Web site
designed by..." and a link.

--
Red