------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 2, Issue 8 In the last issue we started talking about your website and who really owns it. Apparently it touched a bit of a nerve based on the response I received. The cool thing is, one of the responses was from a friend of mine, Chris Juillet, who is an intellectual property lawyer. He told me that I only scratched the surface of some of the issues. Fortunately for us, we was willing to share some of his knowledge. Be sure to check out his article in the Guest area. In the meantime, I will also be delving into this area more, myself. This time we'll be looking at some of the signs that you might not be in control of your own website. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Who Has Control? 2. Blog Posts 3. Guest Article: You *paid* for it, but you may not *own* it 4. Shameless Self-Promotion 5. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Who Has Control? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Last issue we talked about the problems which can arise if you don't have control over your own website. The challenges can range from the inconvenience of being locked into using a single web designer to the tragedy of losing months or years of effort at building your online presence. So, we agree that it is a Bad Thing. How do you know if you are in danger? Let's take a look at some questions you can ask of yourself to better assess the situation. 1. Are you paying for the site? Very few things in life are free. Unless you have your site on one of several advertising-supported systems, *someone* must pay for it. Usually whoever is paying for it has the ultimate control over it. Check your financial statements for a monthly, quarterly, or annual payment for your hosting services. If you can't find anything, then you might want to start to worry. 2. Who hosts the website? As long as you've got your statements out, check to see *who* you are paying. If you see either a national hosting service such as GoDaddy.com or 1and1.com, or even one which is more local, you are probably in pretty good shape. If you are paying your web developer, then they are probably hosting it for you. This may initially seem like a good idea. After all the developer probably will be cheaper than a third-party service and why not have everything in the same spot? The downside is that this often means that you (or someone else you might designate) won't have the ability to upload new information to your website. Also, if your developer ever goes out of business, what happens to your site? I've even seen it happen where someone has had a falling-out with their developer -- with disastrous results. 3. Where is your site registered? This is often, but not always, the same place where your website is hosted (see #2 above). You can think of the registrar as the one who tells everyone else where to find your website. One of the best ways to find out is to check one of the "Who Is" sites. The one I've been looking at is AllWhoIs.com. Type in your domain name (the part of your website URL that comes after the "www" and ends in ".com", ".org", ".net", etc) and hit "Search". In a few moments you will see a pile of information that makes little sense and isn't particularly standardized. I checked three different sites and each came back with different amounts of information. Somewhere in that mess, though, you should be able to find out who are the registrant, administrative, and technical contacts for your site. If it's a company, you *might* be OK. Chances are it's your hosting service. If it's an individual, then be sure you know who that is, because they are the ones who control your online identity. 4. Do you know if your hosting service is Windows- or Unix/Linux-based? If any of the URLs on your site end in ".asp" or ".htm", then you are probably on a Windows-based site. if they end in ".php", ".pl", or ".html" then it is probably Unix/Linux-based. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but it is a good indicator. One of the reasons to know this is so that if you do decide to have work done on your site, you will be able to find a firm who can help with your particular type of site. Many companies service only one or the other. I just recently ran into an organization that had a hard time finding someone who could help them with their Windows-based site due to a lack of developers who could support their needs for a price they could afford. This is not to say that one is definitely better than the other (though I have my biases), it's more just a good idea to have that knowledge about your site so that you can make better decisions down the line. 5. Do you have the access information for your site? This is a big one. By access information I mean whatever someone needs to know in order to make changes to your website. At the minimum this would be the username, password, and address (something like ftp.yourcompany.com) necessary to upload new pages to your site. Most hosting services also provide what they call a "control panel" which gives the site owner access to many of the website features. This also usually requires a username, password, address combination. If your site has a different registrar than your hosting service (see #3 above), then it, too, will have a different set of username/password/address information. If you know who is hosting the site (#2) and/or who the registrar is (#3), you can quite often go to the site for that service and they will have a mechanism for retrieving lost or forgotten passwords. I'm probably forgetting some of the questions you should ask, but these cover a majority of what you should know. These questions are not designed to scare you or to cause you to have paranoid delusions that your current web developer is out to get you. The goal here is merely to help you understand your current position. If you are happy and comfortable with that position, whatever it is, then you don't need to do anything. If not, however, next issue we'll cover some preventive and palliative measures to put you more in the driver's seat with your online presence. Copyright 2008, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Thursday, November 08, 2007 -- On the Web: Defining Some Terms http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-web-defining-some-terms.html "I've spoken with a few networking contacts and prospects lately and I've discovered that there is some confusion as to the entities which govern how we interact with the Web. So, without further ado, here are a few of the terms a website owner should know..." Wednesday, April 26, 2006 -- Another Unexpected Pleasure http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2006/04/another-unexpected-pleasure.html "... I had a surprisingly good experience just the other day. I have been in the process of moving to a new web hosting service for my company's website, http://cyberdatasolns.com, for about the last month. It always takes a while to go through this process, what with moving all the content and testing it on the new service. The final step, prior to canceling the old website, is to tell your Domain Name Registrar that the site has moved. Most of these services actually have online facilities to make these changes. Mine, Network Solutions, Inc., was no exception...." ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Guest Article: You *paid* for it, but you may not *own* it ---------------------------------------------------------------- by Christopher Juillet, Attorney at Law It seems simple enough. You walk into the store, select your item, pay the clerk, and walk out with your purchase. Your purchase. What you bought, you own, right? Well, if you're buying food or clothing or some other tangible item, that is indeed the case. If, however, you're buying writing services, graphics services, photographic services, programming services, even website design services, simply paying your vendor might not mean that you actually own the work. Such is the law when dealing with these sorts of products, which fall under the broad category of "intellectual property." According to the law, when someone creates a work of intellectual property, they, not the client, owns the work. They hold "copyright" (the exclusive right to copy) of that work, whether a photo, drawing, brochure, computer program or website file. This means that unless the person who created the work gives permission to copy or modify the work, that work cannot be copied or modified by another. Now, there are numerous exceptions to this general rule, but one relevant to this brief discussion is when the work is a "work for hire." Works made for hire are those developed for a company by an employee under the scope of that employment. Basically, this means that the project was done by a W2-status employee using company resources, on company time, and as assigned by his or her supervisor. In this case, ownership of the work is held by the employer, not the employee. Whenever you are contracting with an outside vendor for the development of intellectual property, it is absolutely essential that you receive from that vendor a signed agreement stating that you, not they, hold all ownership rights in the resulting work, including all rights to copy, print and modify the work. You also need to stipulate that you will receive all electronic copies of the work. If the vendor you plan to use will not comply with this requirement, you give them your business (and your money) at your peril. You may get what the product you desire -- you may pay for that product as delivered -- but you may not own that work and you may find yourself at that vendor's mercy if you want to use the work later or make modifications. For a more detailed discussion of this and other topics relevant to intellectual property and small business, visit www.juilletlaw.com and click on Articles. Christopher Juillet is an Ann Arbor-based attorney focusing on business, internet, intellectual property, estate planning and probate. He can be reached at 734-827-9450 or chris@juilletlaw.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 5. 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