I don’t know if I posted in the right forum, but still I hope somebody can give some light…
If design a website for a client, who owns the rights to the original programming? And let me explain…
After designing a site for a client, later on he decides to use another webmaster. Of course, he asks for the files of the site so he or his new webmaster can upload and edit them somewhere else. To my understanding, he hired you to develop a website, the final product of all the effort, right? How you do it or what skills or programs you use or have to produce it is irrelevant for as long as the final product meets his demands and expectations. So you put all your experience, knowledge and skills into programming his site and develop some cool and exclusive coding and animations and graphics to comply with the site requirements… You post the site (the final product for which he’s paying) and then your job is done and all that’s left is to provide your support for actualizations and maintenance…
Ok, when he asks for the files of the website, am I supposed to give him the original photoshop, flash, illustrator, etc. files so that other webmaster that maybe knows much less than me profits from my knowledge and experience??? And then, I might even have to provide support to the other “designer” because he doesn’t understand squat about how I made the animations, effects etc. etc?
I think he can have the files formatted for the internet for free (the fla’s, jpeg’s, gif’s, mp3’s, etc…
But shouldn’t I charge him for giving up my coding and design skills and files to somebody else who will benefit both design and money wise from my skills, knowledge and experience???
All your comments will be welcomed. Thanks in advance.
