Website Copyrights: California Work-For-Hire Agreements
California work-for-hire agreements give all copyrights to the person who does the work - not the person who ordered the work.
Work For Hire Agreements With Creators Outside of California
The California Department of Insurance states:
...Out-of-state employers may need workers' compensation coverage if an employee is regularly employed in California or a contract of employment is entered into here.
In other words, if you hire someone you found on Elance who lives in California (and you do not), if you want SEO, metadata, and other created works copyrights, you still need to treat them as an employee subject to California employment laws.
What "works" are copyrighted?
Copyrights can be asserted to:
Metadata including page titles and meta name descriptions; keywords and keyword phrases (in context of the website); images, flash, and other visual media; audio media; content; hyperlinks (in context); and just about anything else you hire someone to "create" for you.
"Created works" can refer to original and edited works depending upon the wording in a contract..
Note to FindLaw Clients
Be sure to read your contract. Any work created by FindLaw - including meta data and page titles most likely belongs to FindLaw - not you. Be sure you know what FindLaw hold the rights to before you sign or cancel a contract with FindLaw.
Be sure to ask any company you sign with, including FindLaw, "What will I own and can walk away with when my contract is up - and what will you keep?"
California Work-For-Hire Agreements & Website Copyrights
California work-for-hire agreement laws may not protect your copyrights to SEO work, metadata and other creations and works
SEO Tip: Even the lowly hyperlink may be copyright protected by law. What copyrights does your web marketing company have to your site?
Work-for-hire agreements in California conflict with federal copyright laws.
California law automatically assigns all copyrights for creations to the person who did the work - not the company who hired them. In fact, the law is so well, stupid, that a work-for-hire in California cannot even sell you those copyrights unless certain conditions are met.
Copyrights Cannot be Transferred Unless Certain Conditions are Met
California state law prohibits transferring copyrights from the author/creator to a client under "Work for Hire" agreements unless the creator is also treated as an employee.
If you make an agreement where the creator will give you copyrights to their creation (in this case, meta data and SEO work), they are seen by California law as any other employee.
This means, to get copyrights to your SEO data you will need to carry workers compensation insurance and unemployment insurance for the creator, and you may even have to withhold federal and state taxes from any payments made to them.
California law (Labor Code 3351.5 (c))also requires that insurance be purchased and in place before you sign a Work for Hire agreement, before any work is done, and before any payment is made.
If you do not comply with this law and enter into an agreement without this insurance, the employer is committing a crime under California law.
How We Protect Your Copyrights
We grant you full, unlimited and unrestricted lifetime licensing to anything we create for you. We waive all legal rights to assert any claims to creations and specifically agree not to alter, remove, or reuse anything we create for you without your express, prior permission. If you cancel a monthly services contract with us we do not strip your website - you will walk away with everything we created for you.
We do not charge one-time, monthly, or any other fees whatsoever for granting you unrestricted licensing.
Sources:
- Excerpts from Work for Hire Agreements - SEO Copyright Transfer Laws in California. Lahle Wolfe. About.com Women in Business. Accessed 05/19/09.
- Haig Arten. The Basics of California Workers' Compensation. 11/05/2007.
- California Department of Insurance. Division of Workers' Compensation - FAQs. September 2007.
- State of California Department of Insurance. Workers' Compensation Insurance. (.pdf)