The Basics of Copyright Law

Copyright laws basically grant intellectual property rights and ownership to the creators of non-tangible items such as novels, music, website content and more. It can be applied to anything online – text, art, graphics, photos and music. This can also include software.

Copyright law gives the owner of the material five basic rights. These rights are:

• Reproduction Rights – Only the owner can determine who has the right to duplicate the work.
• Modification Rights – Only the owner has the right to modify the original to create a new work. An example of modification to a preexisting work is if you were to alter a photograph. Unless you own the rights to that photo, you could be in copyright violation.
• Distribution Rights – This concerns the right to distribute copies of the work, whether by selling them or giving them away. This is especially relevant to software developers who make their living by creating and selling software.

These three rights are the most important rights concerning software developers and licensing. The other two rights covered under copyright law are:

• Public Performance Right – Involving the right to perform the material (such as a song or script) to the public.
• Public Display Right – Similar to the Public Performance Right, this right involves displaying any images or video clips to the public.

If you work as a software developer, anything you create is solely yours to distribute and reproduce under copyright law. When you choose to grant permission to others to use the software or reproduce it – by installing it on another computer, for example – you are granting them license. When clients purchase software, they are generally purchasing licenses, not the actual ownership of the software. The ownership still belongs to you, the creator.

A great example of this is purchasing the Microsoft Office Suite for your office. If you have five computers that need the Microsoft Suite, you will purchase five licenses. This will allow you to install the Microsoft Suite up to five times.

For more information on copyright law, read this detailed explanation from contract and legal document experts, Contract Edge.

Importance of a Web Maintenance Agreement for Web Designers & Webmasters

As a webmaster providing site maintenance and eCommerce updates for various clients of mine, I often get caught up in the work without putting much thought to the proper business facilities that need to be in place before working.  What I mean by this, is that when you start performing services for someone, you need to ensure that a few things are lined up in advance or you could end up paying for your mistakes later.

Here are a few important tips to help you get ready to provide website maintenance and/or webmaster services to your clients:

* A registered business name and/or tax account.  Face it, you can’t get away from Uncle Sam forever by getting money through PayPal.  If the amounts reach a significant level, your earnings will be reported to the IRS and you could face tax penalties that could have otherwise been avoided.
* A decent accountant and/or billing system.  If you can’t keep track of the money coming in and pay your taxes, etc., you’re certainly not going to be able to keep track of it going out either.
* A website maintenance agreement is also essential.  Before you start mucking around with someone’s website and/or their shopping cart, you better be sure that you clearly indicated in a contractual agreement what you are and aren’t responsible for.  The last thing you need is to get sued by someone for breaking their shopping cart, when you only made a measly $50 on the work to begin with.
* An E&O insurance policy for peace of mind.  Ties into the previous tip as well… pray it doesn’t happen, but if you do break something and it leads to a lawsuit or any kind of dispute, having a good liability policy to protect you is priceless.

There are certainly more tips that I could offer to you if you’re already providing webmaster services or thinking about starting to offer them, but these are the essentials.  And if you’re now second guessing your decision to start because of the costs involved, etc., don’t be.  You can get most of these things setup for less than $500 for an entire year.  The client contract is a piece of cake – all you need is a website maintenance agreement template to edit, make your own, then re-use for all of your clients.  Insurers offer special policies to Internet professionals as well, so you won’t be applying for some gigantic policy, etc.  The registered business name and tax account can usually be setup within a few days/weeks – most forms can be downloaded from the government websites.

For those of you already offering these services…. If you have any additional tips or suggestions for newbies, we’d love for you to leave them in the comments.

What To Do When a Breach of Contract Occurs

Material Breach?

Breaches of contract can often turn into a confusing maze of questions and legal concerns, leaving you feeling lost and full of questions: What can I do when a contract has been breached?  Who do I turn to?  Where do I go from here?

First off, you have to be sure that there is, in fact, a breach of contract.  Once you determine if there is a breach; you have to assess to what degree or extent the contract has been breached.  Is it a minor breach?  Is it a material breach?  Is it a fundamental breach?  Is it an anticipatory breach?

Who do you turn to?  Well, that depends on more factors that cannot be easily redressed in a simple blog post.  If you have a decent understanding of your principle contract and the matter is, at most, a few thousand dollars, representing yourself in small claims court might be the best course of action. An attorney can provide counsel to help you determine if small claims court is right for you. If the matter is for a larger sum of money, for a slander issue, or if the issue(s) pertain to intellectual property rights, your first course of action should be to retain counsel.

If you decide to go it on your own, here are a few simple suggestions.  Again, this is not legal advice.  Determine where in your contract breaches have occurred.  Call those breaches to the attention of the party in breach.  Be sure to create a paper trail.  Do not make any inflammatory statements or any statements lacking facts or proof.  The last thing you want to do is make slanderous statements or accusations and exacerbate the situation.  Keep a cool and level head and if you are not able to come to an amicable resolution, turn the issue over to professionals.

Remember if you have a well written, solidly binding contract you should never find yourself with any breach-of-contract issues.  Planning and forethought go a long way.  Finally, avoid legal battles whenever possible. Long legal battles will only hurt you in the end.

Advice for Adults Going Back to College

If you were late to the party or are a convert from a previous career there is still hope of obtaining a new college degree. There are countless colleges and universities that offer Information Technology degrees as well as specialized training. The keys are finding one in your area and in your price range that offers classes you both want and need. Once you’ve decided what you want to study and your budget is in place, you are ready to find the school in your area that meets your criteria.

The Internet is a great resource for exploring and investigating colleges and universities and Universities.com is an excellent catalogue of colleges and universities throughout the United States. The site lists desired majors and fields of study while helping to show you where you can achieve your goals. Although Universities.com specializes in distance learning and online degrees, they still have a solid base of information on colleges and universities from across the country.

US News and World Report releases a yearly ranking of colleges and universities. Their rankings help to give prospective students a great barometer. Their system allows you to search for the best college in your proposed field of study. You get break downs on the last four years tuition and fees for your potential alma mater. In short, US News and World Report is a must have resource for any prospective college student.

Once you have a school picked out that is in your desired geographic region, meets your price range and has the classes or degree that interests you, the ACCSCT is a great asset to ensure your school is living up to its claims. The ACCSCT is a non-governmental, non-profit body that is recognized by the United States Department of Education as their independent accrediting service. The ACCSCT includes a section for prospective students from which, students can conduct further research into their desired schools.

I have found that all colleges and universities are more than willing to give you as much free information about their programs as possible. Make sure that you utilize this resource as well. Don’t forget that you are essentially their potential customer and that prospective schools should meet your needs. With your education at stake, do not settle for anything less than what you personally require. Ask questions about financial aid, ask to meet your future professors, discover the history of the institution and inquire about the long-term viability of the school. The last thing you want is to pay your hard earned money out to a school that isn’t going to be around five years after your graduation.