Maintenance of websites and copyrights

[riley454]

If someone has created a website, but the site owner wants it to be updated or enhanced, can a new website developer make some basic changes without infringing copyright regulations?

And when the new updated site is published, who owns the copyright to the design/details etc of the site? The original developer, or the developer who modified the site?

 

[zkiller]

neither, the company that bought the services/products owns the copyright for the design. the only thing you may still hold a copyright to is any software of yours that you may have incorporated into the site. in which case the client would merely purchase a license. whether the client or another developer can make changes to said licensed software would need to be declared within your license agreement/contract.

i know that it isn't really a straigh answer, but i hope it helps a little.

 

[riley454]

Surprisingly Z it is infact a very straight answer! It took a couple of re-reads to get my head around it, but it actually made sense(eventually) to me that the site owner holds rights to the design. Also removes some concern that I initially had about a potential venturing into this area of hobby/casual business.

Thanks for another helpful response!