Some advice please?
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- Nematoth
hi everyone...
I have a little bit of a situation..
It is my understanding that if you are a freelancer and you do work for another company then the source files belong to you... if no other contract exists. correct or not?Thing is.. I did first draft of a flash site.. uploaded all source files to them ( i trusted them as they were my old company) and now the buggers have got the client comments and got someone else to do the changes cos they thought I was too bz with their other freelance projects.. (they din even ask me) ... now they want me to check through the shitty files (whoever did them is crap) and upload them to the webserver for them.. I was just gonna write an angry email to the boss and say that theorretically the files belong to me so you had no right to do that.. so.. can i say that ot not? Anyone know anything about this?
Cheers..
- tonx0
Never react in anger, send an invoice......
- Nematoth0
doesn't really answer my question though mate.. but I AM angry.. the dude they got has doubled the filsizes.. and buggered the streaming.. so.. do the files belong to me or not?
- jevad0
no contract = YOUR work
- 19770
There you have it. Plus anger is good. Not letting your anger to come out is a bad thing. Spread the anger!
- Nematoth0
thanks Jevad. I thought that, but just needed some confirmations - anyone else wanna double/triple confirm
:-)
and I just stomped on a carrot juice carton to get rid of some anger.. feels better now..
( I just have to clean up the orange mess from my wall now)
Cleaning os good therapy too init?
- muckychris0
Sounds like a frustrating situation. I've been the freelancer and the freelancee. If not previously spoken about, I would assume that if you were hired to do webdesign/flash work that the psds/flas would go to the company who hired you. And if they didn't have you do the updates - that's their perogative right? But then someone inhouse screws the pooch and they come back to you for fixes? Charge them hourly for the fixes. This is the life of a hired gun.
- SLAZ0
i was just in a similar situation for a web/flash project for Vogue magazine... the agency i was doing freelance work for too my .psd files, chopped them up, shitted on them and coded it... then came back to me to clean up the design and code...
my reply was no, unless they were paying, i got in a big thing with the agency because they didnt want to pay more, but lowballed me out and did the code themselves...
ONCE THEY TAKE THE FILES FROM YOU, you are not liable or responsible for anything else on that project, everything else is billable... and yes, I was pissed as hell. Not gonna do work for them anymore. At least with freelance you can choose who you want and dont want to do work for.
- Oscope0
Nematooth,
I can only tell you, based from my own experience (USA), Perhaps its different in the some other neck of the woods
If you got paid, you no longer own the content nor the source files. By accepting the money you pay for services rendered and all resources and key object are then property of the client.
The only exception is that if you had a contract that states that the ONLY deliverable is the, lets says, compiled version.
Without that, the client, is allowed to goof up your work as much as they like.
The bright side is that hopefully they learned their lesson and value you as a key resource. Look into appling a pricing structure for your future deliverables and perhaps even allow for scoping of maintenance agreements.
It sucks when a good client goes naughty.
- abizzyman0
Oscope is correct if this is a situation occuring in the U.S.
I've had this happen to me - and even got some legal advice.
Basically - it's your responsibility to cover yourself from the beginning w/a contract.
It's not unethical for them to do as they please with the source files afterward as it's now their property.
I guess the only question I have to ask is: Did you get paid for this?... if you're still awaiting payment - you may have a case.
- brundlefly0
I dunno, flash is a little different than image files or a basic website.
if you hired a company to make a movie, would everything they filmed be your property, or just the final film/animation you had requested in the initial stages..
I think the mistake you made was supplying them the source files in the first place. I am sure once they received them they could figure it was included in good faith, thus theirs.
Always use a contract, it's a pain in the ass, but you have to cover yourself to avoid these situations
:) good luck.
NT, send him some contracts.