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> First, DID the client pay for a template, or did they
> pay for some documents, done in a style with which
> they were (corporately) comfortable?
...
> Unless I'm way off base, here, a template is a layout
> plus the "mechanical" contrivances necessary to
> implement that layout with a particular tool (or family of tools).
I'd say it is pretty clear the company paid for them, since it
paid for the work hours it took to create them.
...
> We owe it to ourselves (if not our posterity) to NOT enshrine
> the best (?) of these -- alone or in combination -- as
> untouchable property.
But if they are untouchable and private, we can sell a whole
new set to the next company. A very bad motivation, but one
that I'm sure I'm not the only person to think of.
> So, the point is that we literally cannot afford to wall off
> big design spaces within that limited working field, saying
> that those spaces and arrangements are private property.
But it isn't the design space, it is the actual template, the
specific implementation, that the company owns. Not the idea
of placing the logo in the upper outside corner of the page,
using a big, bold sans-serif for the headers and a light little
serif font for the body text. The thing the company owns is
the total, absolutely specific package including those
' "mechanical" contrivances '.
I work for a particular company. The templates I developed
belong to that company. We make a big, fat, hairy deal out
of templates, and put an insane amount of time, and even more
political energy, into them. I don't create them anymore, because
it is a privilege reserved to people with pointier hair than mine.
If I were contracting, I'd put together a couple of basic
templates on my own time, and use them when a company
didn't request a special template. I would own the templates
as part of my tool set. But if a company hired me to create
a template, I'd charge for it and consider that particular
template the property of that company. I would have no
problem re-using ideas I learned in the process of the job,
or creating another template that looks pretty similar. But
I would not open those files on behalf of another company.
They don't belong to me.
---
Office:
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
Home:
nax -at- execpc -dot- com
