3 replies to this topic

[Fae]

Hi all,

As some of you may be aware, I'm making a website for a charitable company at the moment, plus a side-project for them written in Java. My time here's nearly up, it's all going fairly smoothly, but a friend told me at the weekend that I should copyright my code.

It's something that I thought about, but was unsure of, as I've pretty much learned all I know about web programming since being here and most of it from online tutorials. I've never copied and pasted other people's code, I've always used the examples of things I want to do that are availible online to learn the process and write my own code based on the concepts I've learned. Because of this I'm not sure whether I'd have the right to copyright it until now when my friend mentioned it.

There is one exception in all of my pieces of code: the code to make a drop-down menu onMouseOver os the only thing that's pretty much the same as the original. I didn't copy and paste it, but when I'd finished writing it based on the example, it looks almost the same as the example I used to learn it (give or take a line or two).

Also, will there be any further legal implications because of this? Like, will I have to produce a written contract with the company saying they can use my code if I do? And is it really my code, or is it theirs because they hired me and therefore paid for it?

Any help will do, this is an issue I'm really new to.

Thanks in adfvance, all!

~Fae

[Alexander]

If you do not explicitly release your software under any license, your software is copyrighted to you automatically by writing it with no derivative works.. You may wish to release your work under a GPL/BSD-style license requiring the end user to maintain copyright status in code, itdoes not need to be displayed, and maintain your rights if they end up modifying or distributing your code (under the same derivative license).

I personally would release under a BSD style license, you may wish to browse a few popular ones here:
Open Source Licenses by Category | Open Source Initiative

There is no harm in licensing your work, unless you truly do not care what they do with it and want no accreditation.

[Fae]

Hi NullW0rm,

Sorry for the late reply, I thought I'd replied to this already ^^;;
I've applied the BSD lisence to my code already, it seemed to do the trick:- it says I wrote the code, names the organisation I wrotre it for, and the year, allows them to modify it and reproduce it as long as the copyright remains etc... (It's the 'New' BSD lisence, I think, with four clauses)
I left the Binary part in too, even though I'm mostly applying it to html pages which are always uncompiled source.

Just to be clear: I'm the <OWNER> of the code, right? I'm not putting the name of the organisation or the director or anything there? I checked it on Wikipedia, and it uses <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> instead of <OWNER>, which I'd guess is me, but... well, when things boil down to legalities, it's an area I know almost nothing about, so I want to check to make sure I don't get sued massively in the future for writing one word incorrectly ;) I don't wanna panic in a month or so in case I find out that I'm not the copyright holder for whatever reason...

Sorry for the questions with obvious answers, and thanks again for your help! ^^

~Fae

[Alexander]

Quote

Just to be clear: I'm the <OWNER> of the code, right?

You are the copyright holder of the code, they (and anyone else having the code) is the said "owner".

Quote

I don't wanna panic in a month or so in case I find out that I'm not the copyright holder for whatever reason...

The license applies to them by their owning or use of the code, including status of you being the copyright holder. In that license it states you are releasing the work "as is" of which any wrongful use by them on purpose or by accident makes you legally, financially (and otherwise) not responsible.

Your work should be void of copyright 70 years after your death as it is published after 2003, if that is of any meaning to you.