Who owns the copyright to a web application, the contract designer/developer or the client or joint?
This was selected as Best Answer Based on your profile I am assuming you are interested in Australian law on this point. In Australia, copyright vests in the author unless the author was performing the work as an employee or there is a contract saying the copyright will vest differently (Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) s35). The courts do not just look at the contractual relationship to determine whether the work was done as an employee. If you were doing the work on the customer’s premises using customer equipment under the supervision of the customer you would almost certainly be regarded as an employee for these purposes, even if the arrangement was a temporary one. Arrangements with contractors should always be in writing (in fact these days I would recommend all employment contracts be in writing too). Where the contractor is producing copyrightable material, the contract should explicitly state in whom the copyright will vest.
