A copyright assignment involves the transfer of ownership from one owner to another. If an agreement provides that ‘the Developer assigns all of the copyright in the Software to the Client’ most non-lawyers would assume that those words mean exactly what they say: i.e. that the copyright in the Software has been transferred by the Developer to the Client. Unfortunately, the actual legal position may not be quite so straight forward.
Read MoreMoral rights are a form of protection given to creators of certain works under the Copyright Act 1968. They were first introduced into Australia in December 2000. They’re regarded as being ‘moral’ rights because they’re designed to protect the relationship between the works and their creators rather than being focused on who has the right to exploit the commercial or economic interests.
Read MoreCopyright is all pervasive. It protects a dizzying array of subject matter from written works such as instruction manuals and poems to pictorial works such as drawings and maps. It protects musical and audiovisual works including podcasts and YouTube videos and other subject matter such as television and radio broadcasts.This article provides an introduction to the law of copyright by explaining a number of fundamental concepts in simple terms.
Read MoreSome people choose to write a copyright notice by reference to a single year, while others show a range of years. Is one way better than the other, and is the answer always the same in different contexts?
Read MoreMost business people don’t realise this, but when a business commissions the development of custom software, the code developed usually belongs to the external developers rather than the client who’s paid for it. The more savvy operators will ensure that their software development agreement has a clause which ensures the code is owned by the client. This article explains how this might not always be enough.
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