Margot, I've worked in web development project management for about 15 years, and I have functioned on both sides of the coin. This is very tricky, and the advice you've been receiving from others about your contract is significant. But there is another issue that nobody has addressed yet. Generally, your client likely owns the content that he has supplied, I.E., text, photos, graphics. And many web hosts will allow you to take your site wherever you want, however the tricky part comes in when your site is built using proprietary programming that the web developer/host owns. In its basic sense, think of this as the "pages" generated by a customer management system, (CMS.) So, yes, you can move your site elsewhere, but you generally cannot take the programming behind the site that actually makes dynamically generated pages display, so moving such a site is essentially worthless to you, as you can take the elements, but not the engine that makes it run. I've encountered very few business sites over the last 10 years that don't have most, if not all, of their "pages" generated by a CMS. So you need to have a very strong handle on how your client's site is built before you entertain moving it elsewhere. If it's old-school, just a group of static pages without a CMS, you'll probably be fine. If it's running on a CMS, you'll probably be in trouble. Good luck! Best regards, - Christine cid:image001.png at 01CA8D67.12D0EB70 Miracle Growth for your Company Grow My Company 68 Dugan Road Ware, MA, 01082 413.537.2474 <mailto:Christine at GrowMyCo.com> Christine at GrowMyCo.com <http://growmyco.typepad.com/company/> http://growmyco.com Connect: <http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinepilch> Linkedin <http://www.facebook.com/growmycompany> Facebook <http://twitter.com/ChristinePilch> Twitter <http://www.youtube.com/user/christinepilch> cid:image005.png at 01CB1EBA.EC06CC90 From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Margot Zalkind Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:12 PM To: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net Subject: [Hidden-tech] who owns a website? IF a company wants to change website designers, who wons the rights to the website? IF it was done for payment and IF the company owns the copyright? Can they change? Thanks, M -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 24830 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0005.png -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 655 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0006.png -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 258 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0007.png -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 570 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0008.png -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 754 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20111014/fb199b6d/attachment-0009.png