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Rant: A client tried to copyright my draft after I sent it for comments
About a month ago, a small biz owner asked me to review a blog post she'd written, and I sent back a heavily edited version with notes in the margins. She loved my changes, then submitted that exact draft to the copyright office under her name without asking. When I confronted her over email, she said, 'Well, I paid for your time, so it's mine now.' That hit me because we never signed a contract, just a verbal agreement for editing, not ghostwriting. Has anyone else run into this gray zone where a client assumes paid feedback transfers full ownership?
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keith16411d ago
Two years ago I had the same thing happen with a local restaurant owner, and I learned the hard way to put a line in every email like "this edit is for review only, no rights transfer until we sign a contract." She can register it but that doesn't mean she owns it legally, drafts and comments are separate from the final work, so you've got a decent case if you want to push back.
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