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This is a question that comes up periodically on another
mail list I subscribe to (architectural modeling and
rendering), and I seem to be the only person on that list
with any experience in the matter. There are two separate
cases that usually need to be explained to reviewers: what
the default copyright law says, and what your particular
contract agreement says. Your understanding represents the
arrangement that I see most commonly. However, if by some
inexplicable turn of events your contract says nothing at
all about IP ownership and the client has inserted a "work
for hire" clause, then any new content you create as a part
of your consultancy might very well belong to them. But
I'm with David on the question of how to respond to the
reviewer - refer it to your contracts/legal people and save
yourself from an endless circular discussion that will make
the longest thread on any mailing list seem like a walk in
the park.
Gene Kim-Eng
------- Original Message -------
On
Fri, 18 Jul 2003 13:09:06 -0400 Dick Margulis ?wrote:
My assumption, which I will be happy to have confirmed or disconfirmed, is that the intellectual property we develop belongs to us and that while we may license the customer to copy and circulate the material internally, we do not give the customer the right to disseminate the information elsewhere. I think this situation arises frequently in consulting companies and, as far as I am aware, the consultants always retain copyright.
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