Position:Home>Visual Arts> Question On Royalty?

If the designer is an employee of the company, and his contract does not specify any royalties, then, no, the artist does not get any!.

If a company contracts with a self employed freelance designer, again, it depends on how the contract is written, about who retains copyrights of work created under that contract!. If the artist retains the copyrights, then he is the owner of the image and the compay cannot use the image, again, later, without obtaining permission, or license from the artist!.

The standard contract for ALL of my clients specifies that all designs created by me are my property and the copyright is retained by me!. That way, any changes in the designs and layouts must be done by me and, of course, the client must pay for my time to do this!. An example of this would be for a restaurant menu!. If the restaurant changes prices, legally, they must come back to me for any changes in the layout, and that means changes in the selections and the prices!.

If a client wants the copyrights in their name, I can rewrite the contract, but I will charge much higher prices for the design work, since giving away the rights means I lose the potential for future income from my own work!.

I don't agree with "noname!.artist" in that the employee artist IS compensated for contibutions to the company's "bottom line!." That compensation takes the form of a SALARY!. Should the company's telephone receptionist get any more "compensation" for her contibutions!? Is her work any LESS important than that of a graphic designer!? Should the artist get money DEDUCTED from his salary if the company suffers a LOSS!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Generally, if your working for a company, on their time, patends and copy-righted material belong to the company!.
But the company can, and should, compensate their employee's for contributing to the company's bottom-line!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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