The following entry should not be taken as a plug for the movie of the above name that is set for release this October 1st and is described by Columbia Pictures in a press release as the story of how Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, became the youngest billionaire in history.
However, when the movie does come out, I will be wondering whether it will include the story of a certain Paul Ceglia who is claiming he owns 84% of Facebook based on a “work for hire” website development contract. Or whether it will include the story of how a New York state court judge granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the transfer of Facebook’s nearly $25,000,000,000 in assets until this dispute is resolved. Zuckerberg reportedly worked for Ceglia as a computer coder according to Zuckerberg’s lawyer, Lisa Simpson. (That’s right, that’s her name…we all wondered what Lisa would do when she grew up!) According to a Bloomberg news report, for a variety of reasons, Facebook is postponing its IPO until next year.
The lesson to be learned here is that, with a few limited exceptions, the general rule is that the person who creates a work is the author and owns the copyright in it unless you’re his or her employer. If you retain a creative type to do some creative work for you and you’re not his or her employer, e.g., pay that individual a salary or benefits, unless you have him or her execute an agreement granting you ownership in the work prior to the time he or she starts creating that work for you, he or she owns it, not you, and you will need a copyright assignment back from the creator/author to obtain ownership rights in it later on. And if he sees money coming out of his creation at that point, he or she may own you as well as the work.
This is particularly an issue when you hire an outsider to create your web site or do any software development for you. You may think you’re the owner of a video game business, on-line auction business, or on-line medical records business, for example, but if you hired an outside consultant who created the game, auction site, or medical records technology, you may find yourself in court trying to prevent that consultant from taking your business away. So consider, in those circumstances, getting a non-compete and confidentiality agreement from that developer as well. If you seek to save money by hiring an off-shore developer, these agreements becomes even more critical. You may not want to have to defend your intellectual property rights in a Macedonian court.
