Timeline for What are general practices in handing over usage rights to the client?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
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| Feb 15, 2014 at 7:47 | comment | added | curious♦ | I totally disagree about handing over source files. I have a clause in my client agreement which states that source files are excluded from the price and can be bought if needed later on, usually about 50% of the total price. It depends if you are freelancing for an agency or acting as the agency for a client. Your source files may include source code, hints about how to create a special style, etc. that are part of your process. Handing over the source files means someone could potentially enable your style more easily. Obviously, that doesn't apply for a logo file or HTML/CSS files. | |
| Feb 21, 2011 at 12:47 | vote | accept | Pekka | ||
| Jan 12, 2011 at 12:02 | comment | added | Philip Regan | [...] enter reprint corrections: usually quick corrections, short turnaround, high volume. The cost would be enormous to have the comp do all of that work and we would never agree to the charges. Even when I was on the design side of things, it was pretty much expected that we handed over the source files. In my experience the only times we have ever had a designer refuse or charge us extra to hand over files was because the work was done by a firm that typically does not do book work and doesn't understand the nature of the industry. We've actually had to cite U.S. copyright law in the past. | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 11:59 | comment | added | Philip Regan | @Littlemad/e100: I don't know what either of your backgrounds are, but it sounds as though practices are different in your industries than it is in mine. Being in book publishing, we require the source files at the end of the job because invariably we need to apply changes on reprint, and the first one typically happens very quickly, so quickly that we generally can't wait on anyone. We get the files on first printing, and I have a guy in my department that does nothing but [...] | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 9:29 | comment | added | e100 | Not handing over the source file, or charging a supplementary fee is also common practice in my experience. | |
| Jan 11, 2011 at 12:21 | history | edited | Philip Regan | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Jan 11, 2011 at 11:37 | comment | added | Littlemad | I do not own any company, I do not put in place this practice, I am just an observer of what is happening. I am just pointing out a different situation. In all the company that I worked and the one of my friend designers there is this dynamic. The crisis hit so bad Italy that businessmen are not going any more to designers but to improvised designers (usually the sons of someone that has fun with photoshop or something related). Companies & freelancers are not giving source files because they are already selling their product under the normal cost situation. | |
| Jan 11, 2011 at 10:44 | comment | added | Philip Regan | @Littlemad: We've had vendors try and pull that in the past. Usually we got the files one way or another, though sometimes we didn't. Either way, we never used them again. I don't know anyone in my industry who would tolerate that behavior. | |
| Jan 11, 2011 at 1:35 | comment | added | Calvin Huang | That's pretty unprofessional/unethical. You're basically exploiting the naivete of your clients to suck more money out of them. That might work for smaller clients, but any corporate clients will know better. | |
| Jan 10, 2011 at 22:41 | comment | added | Littlemad | I disagree about the source file. I know many italian companies that they don't hand over the source file, but only the ending result (a pdf, a brochure etc...). It is a way to push the client to go back to you. If client wants source file it has to pay more (or at least this is the standard to do so between my contacts). | |
| Jan 10, 2011 at 15:39 | history | answered | Philip Regan | CC BY-SA 2.5 |