Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

The Web site designer and you should have negotiated, agreed upon, and signed the contract before he even started. At this point, my recommendation is that you try to come to an understanding whereby (a) the designer finishes the job; (b) you pay the balance; and (c) the copyright assignment issue is handled in accordance with web-design industry practice. At the moment I am not sure what the standard practice among Web designers is as to whether the copyright is assigned to the client or retained by the designer. There are some reasons why the designer might want (or need) to retain copyright. For example, the designer is probably re-using 96%-plus of the code involved in each site he designs and sells. On the other hand, the client should receive at least an irrevocable license to use, and perhaps to modify, the delivered product. I further recommend that you discuss with your designer whether he knows why he "needs" the copyright, or if this is just a concept he's heard about in learning how to run a Web-design business. He may not have the foggiest idea why he "needs" to retain (or obtain) the copyright in a site he does for others, Also, ask whether his policy is uniform for all clients, and what, if anything he has ever done with his retained rights in any particular Web site. I predict it will turn out that he doesn't know why he has this policy, and has never done anything with a retained copyright. Further, he may not own a single officially-registered copyright.