In order to succeed in the freelance sector of the Web Design/Development Industry, I believe I need to have as many skills behind me as possible, however I need to focus on achieving a set level in all basic skills prior to expanding on that skillset.

Through some research it is evident that in order to be hired as an employee web designer/developer you would need to possess solid skills in all of the following technologies:

• HTML
• CSS
• Java Script
• Java Script Libraries (predominantely jQuery)
• Adobe CS3 (Dreamweaver and Photoshop)

It also appeared desirable to possess further CS3 skills in Illustrator and InDesign if you were planning on obtaining a combined position of web/graphic designer.

With some positions being offered, there was also a call for skills in ASP.Net and MS-SQL, however these are technologies specific to Microsoft Web Servers.  I currently have business and client hosting on an Apache server and considering that Apache servers constitute more than 90% of the web hosting market, I don’t consider these skills important for me.

In a nutshell, skills that I would like to start out with are strong skills in HTML, CSS, Fireworks and Dreamweaver.  Basic skills in Java Script (with knoweldge of implementing the various libraries available) are also on my list of “desirable skills”, with a view to extending these skills through practice over time.

I plan on achieving these skills through the completion of my current studies of the TAFE course in Web Design.  The planned completion date for this course is April 2010, however I plan on implementing skills as I learn them.  I have various website development projects in the pipeline and will use these projects to practice and extend my skills during my study period.

I would like to learn to use and implement a couple of the main Open Source Content Management Systems available.  I believe that this will be briefly covered during my TAFE course, however I feel that these skills will be best obtained by actually using the Systems on some practice web sites.  I am currently doing this and plan to continue doing this during the next 6 months.

It is my intention once I am qualified as a web designer to incorporate some print design within my business so clients can use just one company for their admin, web and print needs, so I anticipate needing to learn Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.  There are various places in Perth which offer training courses for these programmes.

I have always believed that actually “using” is the easiest and best way to learn something and that is how I intend to learn with the support of online resources and books.

Amanda

Before we get down to the actual business of what to do when there is unauthorised use, lets look at ways to prevent the unauthorised use in the first place.

In terms of websites, you could implement one or more of the following deterrents:

• Use a copyright notice – although not required under Australian copyright law, it is always a good idea to include this as an “in your face” reminder that the work is protected by copyright law.
• Define what is allowed and not allowed – a statement (or somthing similar) could be included in an obvious place on your webiste which clearly states what is and is not covered by copyright on your site and what use is allowed or not allowed of the copyright material.
• Terms and Conditions – include a “terms and conditions” on your site which makes references to copyright material.
• Technological Protection – these are measures which can be taken during the setup or update phase of your site and could include things such as disabling your right click menu, including a transparent overlay on any images, password protected areas, viewable only documents (such as PDF).
• Electronic Rights Management – a more costly and involved technqiue which allows the website owner to track the use of material from the site.

If, after implementing some or all of these measures, there is still unauthorised use of your material, the process would be as follows:

• Obtain Advice - speak to a lawyer or some other equally qualified person to determine where you stand from a legal viewpoint and what legal options currently apply.
• Decide what you ultimately want – this may inlcude deciding what restitution you may, if you want an apology or if return of your material is satisfactory.
• Contact the Person – contact the person who has “stolen” your work and oultine exactly what offence they have committed, what you want them to do and what you are able and willing to do about it.
• Court Action – one would hope that it never comes to this, but if you don’t get satisfaction from merely contacting the infringer and you feel strongly enough, then court action will probably be the way to go.

Something to bear in mind about this process would be be that you may want to contact the infringer first (before any legal involvement)….you may be able to resolve the issue without the need for costly legal advice!

Here’s hoping it never happens….

Amanda

Example Copyright Statement

Copyright Statement

Some works are are not copyright protected and in general, these are:

• Names, titles and slogans – the Copyright Act does not define these as protected by copyright.  Many issues have been taken to court over the use of a name, title or slogan and in each case, the court has decided that is not protected by copyright.  Some of these instances relate to advertising slogans, song titles, fictitious words created by a company as their name and titles of television programs.
• Ideas, facts, information and techniques – these things just as they are, are not covered by copyright however the means with which they were communicated to people are (such as documents, charts, drawings, diagrams etc).  While it is not a breach of copyright to use someone elses idea it is important to keep in mind that it may be a breach of other laws if you are breaking confidentiality or your using the idea misleads people into thinking you are associated with the person who had original idea.
• Images of people – unless you are the owner of copyright of an image of yourself, it is very difficult to control the use of images of yourself.

While there are many other works in the world which are not currently covered by copyright (eg copyright owner is long dead), the details above only apply to works which are considered to “never be” covered by copyright.

Amanda

Rights Management is a system which should be put in place by the website designer detailing all the parts of the site, who owns the copyright and any doucmentation relating to the copyright or allowed use of material.

This system should be clear and detailed so if a discrepancy should arise in the future the owner and user of the website can immediately refer to this information and clarify who the owner of the copyright is and what the clearance entitled them to.

The main idea of this system is to quickly find information relating to copyright status and to maintain detailed information relating to clearances and any special conditions which need to met either at the time of first use or on an ongoing basis.  Also, details should be kept about any decisions made not to seek a clearance.

This system should also, if you own the copyright, give details about why you own the copyright (you may have been transferred the copyright or you may be the person who created the material).  This information should also include any documentation relating to this ownership, eg transfer agreements etc.

For further information see:

“Website and Copyright” a book first published in 2002 by the Australian Copyright Council and reprinted in 2006.
Australian Copyright Council
Australian Copyright Act 1968

Amanda

Image via Wikipedia

The aim of this blog post is to describe and actually follow the process to obtain permission to display original material.

The obvious choice for me was to find a photo and go through the process of:

• Finding the copyright owner,
• Send request in writing seeking permission to display/publish the photo,
• wait for response, and
• display the photo in accordance with any directions given by the copyright owner.

I found this beautiful photo, which brought back a memory of my childhood, on Martin Pot’s website martybugs.net.

"Holiday Cottage"

Photo by Martin Pot (http://martybugs.net/blog), used with permission

I sent the below in an email to Martin seeking his permission to display his photo on this blog.

“Hi Martin,

I am not sure if you remember, but I emailed you a couple of weeks ago about your gallery software.  I remembered that I got to your site via a google search for my copyright class in Website Design, which brings me to….

I have an assignment for this copyright class to find some original material on the internet and then ask the copyright holder for permission to display the material on our Copyright Class blog.

If you are indeed the copyright holder (which I have assumed to be) I would like to ask for permission to display your photo “IMG_15877 – Holiday Cottage”.  I chose this photo as it brings back memories of staying in one of those cottages a while ago (or rather many years ago!!).

I will only display this photo on my blog at www.aptafeblog.wordpress.com as a part of my assignment, I will not be using this photo in any other way.

If you could agree to me using your photo I would very much appreciate it and I have no problems with acknowledging you as the photographer if you wish.  Also, may I display your email response as part of the assignment?

Kind Regards
Amanda Perryman”

I received the following response in reply from Martin allowing me permission to display his photo and detailing his conditions of its use.

“Martin Pot wrote, On 30/08/2009 8:41 AM:

> Hi Amanda.

> I’m happy for you to use that image (IMG_15877), providing you adhere
> to the following conditions:
>
> -reproduction rights are granted to are granted to yourself for
> IMG_15877 for inclusion on your website, as described in your email
> -copyright of the image is retained by Martin Pot at all times
> -appropriate credit to be included with the image, and the credit must
> include the wording  “photo by Martin Pot (http://martybugs.net/blog),
> used with permission”
> -image to be used for agreed use only
> -reproduction rights are strictly limited to those described above,
> and must be re-negotiated for any further use of the image
> -reproduction rights granted are to yourself only, and may not be
> assigned, nor may this image be loaned or transferred to third-parties
>
> You are also welcome to display my email response as part of your
> assignment.
>
> Regards,
> Martin.
> http://martybugs.net/blog“

I have also sent an email to Martin thanking him for the permission to use the photo and a link to my post.

This concludes the process of finding and publishing original material.

Amanda

Creating new material can bring along allsorts of issues with copyright.  However when looking at the rules and suggestions for such copyright ownership it is obvious the problem prevention process can be quite simple.

A web designer has the options of using “ready-made” material for their designs, however it some instances it may be preferable or more apporpriate to use freshly created material.

When creating freshly made material, either the website designer will create it themselves, have an employee create the material or they may even use a contractor or freeelancer.

When they create the new material themselves or have an employee to do the creating, generally under law the copyright belongs to the designer.

When commissioning a contractor or freelancer to create some material, generally under law the copyright belongs to the contractor/freelancer.

The only way to change this is by agreement between the parties.   I find it needless to say, but for the sake of calrification, this agreement is alway better in writing and possibly even better if this agreement is written by a lawyer.

An agreement with an employee may be a blanket agreement built into their employment terms, however a separate agreement for each works may also be appropriate.

If engaging a contractor or freelancer, an agreement should always be signed,  if for no other reason than just to detail the works required, and if one is being signed why not add a copyright ownership clause (even if this just clarifies that the contractor/freelancer retains copyright).

An agreement should include the following clauses, at a minimum:

Description of Material
A detailed description should be included…with as much detail as possible.

Time Frames
A time line should be included to cover the final delivery date and any other “progress dates” that may be appropriate.

Rejection of Work
This clause should cover all areas of what should happen if work is rejected….any payment that should be made, reasons allowed for rejection of work and also who will retain copyright if work is rejected (this copyright part should be separate from the overall copyright ownership clause).

Obligation to amend
You may from time to time want the work to be amended or added to….this clause should cover any obligations on the creator to complete amendments or additions.

Ownership of Copyright
This clause is quite obvious…..but it can be as detailed as you like…if the creator retains copyright they may allow the website designer full and unrestricted usage of the material for that given project or in fact any other project.

Ownership of storage media
This clause details who owns the media upon which the material is stored.  For example a photographic neagtive…you may own the copyright on the actual photo on the negative, but the negative may still belong to the photographer.  This clause should be as detailed as possible in order to avoid any confusion.  If the ownership of storage media is transferred to the website designer (now the copyright holder) thought this clause then a date for physical delivery of the storage media needs to be detailed.

Again this is prevention method can be quite simple and if it is detailed and clear enough these agreements can quite quickly decide any issues which may arise.

The majority of information for this post was obtained from “Website and Copyright” a book first published in 2002 by the Australian Copyright Council and reprinted in 2006.

Please see the following websites for more information:
Australian Copyright Council
Australian Copyright Act 1968

Amanda

In one of my previous posts, you will notice that I included a photo of my grandmother and my daughter.  This photo was susequently “stolen” from my blog and posted onto the blog published by Anne Phung.

This constituted a copyright violation as I hold the copyright for this photo and had received no requests from Anne to reproduce or display the photo.

I left a comment on Anne’s blog with a letter requesting that she remove the photograph.  I also included in this letter confirmation that clearance to display the photo would not be granted, but that she could refer to the photo and provide a link back to the relevant post on my blog.  The letter that I sent Anne is as follows:

“Dear Anne,

I have noticed your recent comment on my blog and subsequently discovered the picture of my grandmother and daughter on your blog.

This picture is covered by copyright and the owner of that copyright is myself.

I have not allowed anyone permission/clearance to use this photograph and for personal reasons I will not grant such permission/clearance to anyone.

I have no objection to you referring to the photo and providing a link to the relevant blog post on my blog if you wish.

As such, I request that you please remove the photo from your blog and computer hard drive within 48 hours. Should the photo not be removed within this time, I shall have no option but to take this matter into the legal arena and consult a lawyer.

Should you wish to contact me, you may do so by email to butterfly.7277@yahoo.com.au.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Perryman”

Amanda

I saw this photo on a friend’s blog and thought it was great.  Australia’s wildlife is really amazing.

cray fish head

Please see Anne Phung’s blog for more detail.

I have created original material by taking this photograph.  It is only about 18 months old but one of the last great photos of my grandmother.