Originally posted by Mr. D...we only lease our time and energy to the people and places that we work for. (Unless stated otherwise in a
formal contract between two consenting parties that are of legal age and of sound mind and body).
I'm sure the counsel advice is appreciated, but your understanding is not correct.
From Columbia University (which has one of the best journalism and law schools in the country, IMO):
copyright.columbia.edu...
If you created the work as an employee, acting within the scope of your employment, the work may be a "work made for hire." In that event,
the copyright owner is the employer. If you are an employee, and your job is to create software code, the copyright probably belongs to your employer.
Likewise if you create a graphic or copy (text) for the company, as an employee, they most likely own it.
But for the purposes here, non-exclusive rights are whats important.
Exclusive rights means nobody, but nobody, can do anything with your work except YOU. Say you type your post in a text doc before you post it
here - at that point you are the copyright owner AND you have exclusive copyrights.
Now you copy it and post it on ATS. YOU are still the copyright owner, but you just granted ATS
non-exclusive rights - which by default, means
you no longer have EXCLUSIVE rights (since you HAVE granted someone else non-exclusive rights).
Example: I submit a photo in a photo contest for a travel agency. By submitting it, I agree they can use my photo for promotional purpose (very cool
for me!). I win the contest (even more cool for me!). My photo starts showing up on brochures, advertisements, etc. I have no control over how they
use that photo IN THAT CONTEXT,
but I still OWN the photo and can enter it in other contests, reproduce it, sell it in a really cool frame, and
I can even promote myself by stating that my photo is used by ABC agency. ABC Agency, however, can not put my photo in a really cool frame and sell
it. Nor could they present it as their own work. If one of their customers said "Hey, that's got to be the most awesome photo I've ever seen! Can I
buy a copy?" - ABC Agency would have to say "Not from us, you can't." (Then they contact me and we strike a deal
)
Just for grins, check out the membership agreements in facebook or myspace...
[edit on 8/13/10 by sjrily]