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

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

"Mary Sunshine" <fsrvival@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1188245224.908804.259020@d55g2000hsg.googlegr oups.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.

The copyright belongs to the creator. Lacking a written hardcopy signed
agreement to transferring the copyrights the work product is her's and her's
alone. (any claim by the Arts Council to the contrary has not validity
neither does the AC putting the notice Copyright, Arts Council. (BTDT the
work product was still mine)

Lacking a written and signed agreement to the contrary subsequent employment
does not change the ownership nor does the subsequent employment convert the
work product to work product for hire.

It does not matter if the work was paid or volunteer.

The real question is this something she wants to fight over.

The other side is this something the AC wants to proceed with given the
nature of the organization.

That said, this is not legal advice I'm not a lawer and don't play one on
the internet.

On Aug 27, 4:07 pm, Mary Sunshine <fsrvi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My friend wrote this website:http://www.artskingston.com/years ago
> as a volunteer, and continues to maintain it.

Since the council in question is "a registered non-profit
organization" (according to the site), the use of a .com address for
it is silly; it makes it look like it's trying to appear to be a
commercial entity. .org (or .ca for a Canadian organization) would
make more sense.

--
Dan

Mary Sunshine wrote:

> My friend wrote this website: http://www.artskingston.com/ years ago
> as a volunteer, and continues to maintain it.
> ...
> 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.

It already says: © 2007 Island Arts
on each page.

Except for some pages, which say: © 2007 Kingston Arts Council

> We are wondering, by rights, who owns this website?

Looks as if "Island Arts" and "Kingston Arts Council" are going to have
to duke it out, eh?

You could ask Scarlett Johansson who is making the birch back canoe...

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

Beauregard T. Shagnasty replied to hisself:

> birch back canoe...

bark. Bark!

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:58:45 GMT, "Beauregard T. Shagnasty"
<a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote:

>It already says: © 2007 Island Arts
>on each page.
>
>Except for some pages, which say: © 2007 Kingston Arts Council
>
>> We are wondering, by rights, who owns this website?
>
>Looks as if "Island Arts" and "Kingston Arts Council" are going to have
>to duke it out, eh?
>

Good grief! I never noticed. :-P

She did the site in DreamWeaver ... maybe the IslandArts thing is her
own name?

I've never looked really closely at the site.

Thanks for that.

Mary

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:50:04 -0700, Dan <dan@tobias.name> wrote:

>Since the council in question is "a registered non-profit
>organization" (according to the site), the use of a .com address for
>it is silly; it makes it look like it's trying to appear to be a
>commercial entity. .org (or .ca for a Canadian organization) would
>make more sense.

I know. I've thought that myself. But, as usual, I wasn't around when
that decision was made.

Mary