This story is going to make experienced developers cringe. I just spent 520 hours developing a solution for the nonprofit arts organization that I work for.

No contract.

I had no contract saying who owned the copyright. I didn

This is definitely a question for a lawyer if you want to make sure you get the right answer. I believe the answer lies in exactly what your ties to the organization are. If you are an "employee" of the organization, then anything you do while working for them belongs to them. How a volunteer for a non-profit fits in to that, I'm not sure.

Does intern = employee? My guess is probably. The question is whether this falls in the category "works for hire."

Employees who produce creative work on the job cannot expect to retain personal ownership rights.

etc. Without a contract, it doesn't look good.

Do check with an attorney. Both the Copyright Act and the DMCA have very specific provisions. A derived piece of software may not be eligible to be classified as a work for hire, unlike the photograph.

Old Advance Man

Thank you all for your imput. It seems my situation is too complicated not to consult a lawyer. Not sure it's worth the trouble, though. I don't know how to assess the worth of my "solution" at this point.

Was I an employee operating within the scope of my job? A simple question, seemingly. But nothing in my situation was explicit. Is an intern different from an employee? I received no other benefits, had no taxes witheld and received a stipend paid in advance not a salery paid for work done. In practice, the executive director did not exercise much control over my routine. Finishing the database became synonomous with finishing the internship.

Is database development within the scope of my job? A database is certainly central to the development of an organization. Initially I was in a mentorship with a woman whose field was generating income for the organization by schmoozing with prospective donors, writing grants, developing a marketing strategy, writing press releases.

My job description as posted included researching and soliciting prospective donors, data entry and a handful of other tasks associated with my mentor's field. I initiated the database project, but received direction from a more experienced programmer who was paid by the organization. Does this make it a collaborative work? The executive director also regularly tested the work, influencing the final product.

chris

One thing you haven't mentioned is whether you've just come out and asked the powers-that-be at the organization if they'd have any problem with you retaining the copyright, or developing a similar system on your own, etc. Maybe they'd be fine with it!

Hi,

Let's say that my company had no problem in me retaining the copyright of the database I developed .... what would be the procedure to get the copyright and how much would that cost?

As soon as you have created the work, it is copyrighted. I received alot of good info in this forum about this subject. Tom Fitch once gave me this link: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html

It will give you info on making your copyright more "official."

Ken

Might be better to phrase the question in different terms: something like "The database is yours, but can I have a copy to modify and use for myself?" Not an unreasonable request.

That way you avoid chasing copyright which is only ever going to be expensive and painful. And you'll be modifying the databases anyway if you try to reuse them again.