Demystifying Ownership in Employment Situations By Ronald D. Jackson, Esq. Copyright 1998 Law Offices of Ronald D. Jackson . Click for information on the purpose of this page.
Consultants assume that they own their work and are free to reuse it.
Unfortunately, these assumptions are often wrong. Reliance on such generalities and misconceptions can lead to disastrous effects when the issue of copyright ownership is not clearly spelled out at the outset. Often individuals and businesses discover too late that they have no rights in work they thought they owned. When that happens, problems arise, because only the copyright owner has the legal right to exercise the bundle of rights comprised in a copyright . Everyone else is a potential infringer, which makes them liable unless they have a valid license or other authority to use the work.