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Re: Web site INFRINGEMENT
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Posted by M. Arthur Auslander on November 15, 1999 at 11:13:49:
In Reply to: Web site INFRINGEMENT posted by Steve on November 14, 1999 at 12:34:07:
: Heres the story,
: I was working for a computer home user support company. They have an intranet network information system active. I noticed that there was not any information there for the new people on the phones. This place is ALWAYS hiring and there are ALWAYS new support techs coming in. Most of these new people dont know the first thing to do when they get a call. So, I desided to build a web page for the new people that gives them STEP BY STEP intructions for the most common issues. I build this 30 page web site in MY SPARE TIME, ON MY COMPUTER, AT MY HOUSE, WITH MY SOFTWARE ON MY TIME, using only the steps I would take for any issue. The site took about 60 hours to finish. It contains mostly easy to read text. This was NOT a "WORK FOR HIRE"
: Once it was finished, I told the intranet web master I built it from home in MY SPARE time and asked if he would load it to the server, ....He loved the idea,and proptly loaded my work to the server. Everyone LOVED the new page and it brought call time down by 30% for everyone. That is a great improvment and benefited the company greatly. In 30 days there was over 1500 hits to the site. About 30 days after the site was loaded, I was terminated for something someone sent to my work email, they didnt give me a warning or anything, just terminated. The day I was terminated, I told the web master to remove my site from the server...he did so, and I told him to DELETE ALL COPIES of my work, I thought he did, but he did not. About 1 month later, my page reappeared on the intranet site. the name was changed but it was still MY WORK. Apparently, when the page was removed, people noticed. The page was a great benefit for the company.
: What I want to know is, what can I do about it? I did not register my pages for copywrite, but isn't it copywrited at the moment of creation by the creator? The main page to my site even said " this site was conceieved and written by STEVE" ( with my last name)
: What can I do?
The facts as you state them look good, unless you had a written employment contract, which may have given them rights. The earlier you know what you are doing the better off you are.
M. Arthur Auslander
E arly L egal A dvice I s N ot E xpensive
ELAINE's Workshop (sm):
Auslander & Thomas-Intellectual Property Law Since 1909
505 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
212-594-6900, fax 212-244-0028, aus@auslander.com
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