Client stole our comps
Out of context: Reply #13
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- phaln0
nmata,
By your logic, then, you're saying that the 'Just Different' campaign by Apple, if they had perhaps just hocked a bunch of high-res TIFF files of each personality and used them without express permission, it would be alright? Fair-use or unfair abuse?
I know it's a little off the topic, but I'd really enjoy knowing your view on that.
However, in the realm of this discussion, there has to be a factor of 'due diligence' that needs to be performed by each side before signing *anything*. I know it sounds terribly corporate and a seemingly loaded buzzword, but it's an advantage to have taken a day to read over any contracts they give you, and this includes your client reading through the contract, passing it by legal counsel, the whole nine yards.
Exactly how is a company going to defend themselves in court by saying "Well, uh, we didn't see that!" But there's their signature plain as day on the dotted line. The burden then falls on the client for being so ignorant as to pass over certain portions of the contract.
Anyhow, here is U.S. Code, Title 17, Sections 201(a) and (b), and 202:
201:
(a) Initial Ownership. - Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.
(b) Works Made for Hire. - In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is
considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.202:
Ownership of a copyright, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied. Transfer of ownership of any material object, including the copy or phonorecord in which the work is first fixed, does not of itself convey any rights in the
copyrighted work embodied in the object; nor, in the absence of an agreement, does transfer of ownership of a copyright or of any exclusive rights under a copyright convey property rights in any material object.Case being: If your contract states you own copyright and they're paying for usage, you certainly have a case under U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 201(b). Read the last part.