Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

Website creation/use

If I helped to create databases and other information for a website, do I have any rights to that information (ie. right to be credited, ask for work to be removed from site, etc.)?

The website in question was not put up on the web until after I withdrew from participation, but much of the content was written/produced by myself.


Asked on 11/01/06, 10:30 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: Website creation/use

Predicate question is whether your "information" is copyrightable subject matter. Databases generally are not protecable unless the arrangement itself is sufficiently creative, so the key here is likely to be what else you did and under what circumstances. You should give a more comprehensive factual account to a copyright lawyer for a better analysis of your rights.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 11/01/06, 1:56 pm
Daniel Pepper Pepper Law Group, LLC

Re: Website creation/use

Did you create this material as part of your employment with a company, or purely in your individual capacity? Did you perform the work as part of a written agreement?

If the answer to both of these questions is "no," then any copyrights to this work automatically vests with you at the time you create the work, in the absence of a written assignment of these rights. As the owner of the copyrights, you have exclusive rights to the use, display, reproduction, and publishing of the work.

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Answered on 11/01/06, 10:39 am


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