A while back ago I made a layout for a guy I knew for a site I was going to work on with him.
He never used the layout but still has it. I PMed him and said, you don’t use the layout and your not really my friend (some thing happen between us) so I am going to use my layout.
He says no you can’t use it, the layout is for my company (which he never used)
Now I made it in the first place when I was with his site and was his friend. As of now I am far from it and would like it back.
Do I as the author have the right to use it?
-data
Technically… If you had digital watermarks placed on the files… They are still yours… But if at any point in time your signed the rights over of the images… Then you are screwed…
For something to be legally copyrighted… You need to go through the copyright agency to make it complete legal… So… I say… Go for it… Put it up before he does… And claim it as your own… Unfortunately… he can still use it too… Cause you intiially gave him the permission to. So, you may have two layouts now.
That’s not entirely correct. When congress reworked the copyright law in 1998 the greatly improved the creators right to artwork. You no longer need to file legal papers to own copyright, you just have to be able to prove that you are the creator. Rights to the work remain yours unless you specifically sign them away, and verbal agreements are generally not accepted by the courts since they cannont be documented. As much as the Digital Mellinium Copyright Act drives me nuts, in this narrow instance the DMCA helps you out. So in summary, unless you signed a contract he has no rights to the work, even if he paid you for it.
Yeah - you don’t even need a Copyright notice to claim your own work as your own Copyrights are implied. But you gave the design to him voluntarily in the first place, so I am not sure if it really applies in your case…it could, who knows.
Well I don’t think he will use it and I think I am going to go ahead anyway if I get any trouble from him I’ll have Kirupa kick him around in the ring for a while. j/k
Yeah… Kirupa has the point stated… No verbal agreements… YOU voluntarily gave him the layout… So you can’t hold him accountable for anything copyright… But at the same time… he can’t hold you either…
You can take the chance of having a dupe layout on the net… If it’s for business… Then you’ll have th chance of mock copy and sometimes it’s better to just make a new layout.
hey Kirupa do you want to be the second to take a 10 question interveiw for my site? Ahmed (synOrange) did the first one and I am hoping for Pixel Ranger next.
Ok well this means war, now he is changing my “author=“julianwilson”” meta tag in the layout so it reads his name, not only does he say he made it but that I never even designed such a thing.
Is this a complete a*hole or what? The balls to take a layout of mine and say HE made it.
If you look at his loser web site you will see you could’t make the logo on it alone. http://www.mixx941.com - that is his radio station. hahahah nice layout right?
Because if you did… Umm… You just did something entirely illegal… Unless you had authorization to delete photos off a site, you can not altar or change the way a site looks.
I always design sites on my own server before uploading them over old sites… So the clients can charge or sue me for it… Plus I gte them to sign an agreement
Copyrights are implied. But you gave the design to him voluntarily in the first place, so I am not sure if it really applies in your case…it could, who knows.
j/k
