Copyright
Out of context: Reply #7
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- hellobotto0
omg, stewart, e-pill's links, and sep's trippy, yet spot-on, comment pretty much sum it up. It depends on the contract you signed with your employer (if you work for someone) and the signed agreement between the contracted agency and the client.
When you work for someone else, they'll often include a clause in their NDAs, etc. that state by agreeing to work for them you sign over your creation claims because you created them while an agent for that company. Your employer, in this situation, may give you permission to state you had a role in the project.
Clients will sometimes state in their contracts that need to own the rights to creation and ownership outright in order to avoid future litigation messes. They may even go as far as preventing an agency from publicly displaying the work...again it comes back to the contract.
It's not simply a matter of "copyright" because you get into claims of creation, ownership and display. For example, I may sign over my creation and ownership rights, but I have permission to say I participated in the project when I display the artwork OR I retain creation claims, but I assign ownership to the client for a specific period of time, like in perpetuity.
So to sum it up, and my apologies for any unintended snarkiness, if due diligence is done, and you get your affairs in order through legally sound contracts, which you should before you start a project, then you shouldn't find yourself asking about copyright in a public forum. If you haven't done your due diligence, then you have to accept you're probably going to get stuck with the shit end of the stick because, more than likely, the other party has done that legwork. Treat it as a lesson learned, accept you've joined a club nearly every creative professional is a spent a little time in, and get cracking on the next opportunity with full-vetted contract in hand.
If you've found yourself in a bind, good luck with the next steps. You might also dig this quasi-related lecture if you haven't already seen it: "2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me."
- hellobotto, you're right... a good read here..... yes, we've all experiencced tvaxorcist