Why do web designers keep copyrights for the sites they design? Should'nt these belong to the client?

I am starting a web design company. I've been looking at contracts used by other designers and I've noticed that many of them continue to hold the intellectual property rights of the sites they design. Why do they do this? It seems that rights should transfer to the business or organization that has paid for the site. What am I missing here?

Why do web designers keep copyrights for the sites they design? Should'nt these belong to the client?
There are a number of reasons why a developer would keep the rights to their websites. Firstly, they can use the same design across all their websites and can advertise their product to new clients. If a client likes the design they will go to that company and have their site made by them. Secondly, piracy is a big thing on the Internet and people steal other people's work all the time. It would be trivial to steal parts of the website to use on another website and the company can't do anything about that if they don't maintain the rights to it. Thirdly, the company would have to recreate all their resources for every new client because they've given away the rights so keeping the rights allows them to build websites faster.





The intellectual property rights and copyrights on a website are really irrelevant when it comes to a client. If the client is happy they will more than likely go back to the same company to have their website updated in the future. If the client is not happy they will go off and find another company to make their next website. That company will more than likely have their own design and templates and they will build the client a brand new website so the intellectual property rights and copyrights are irrelevant.
Reply:If the contract calls for the copyright as a deliverable, the copyright goes to the client, otherwise it stays with the designer. (Most clients aren't concerned with the copyright to the design, and aren't willing to pay for it - and the charge would be considerable.) It's not like it's a law - you can sell or keep anything it's legal to own, as long as you aren't violating a contract you made.
Reply:Why do authors hold the copyright to their books instead of publishers? Why do artists own the rights to their paintings instead of their customers? Why do architects own their designs instead of the people who actually pay for the building's design?





It's the same situation, really. The web designer has created a work and sold you the right to use it for your benefit, much like the author sells the rights to his book to a publisher.
Reply:The copyright remains with the designer as it is the designers work. The client pays for one copy of the site. It's like buying a piece of software. Take windows for example. Just because you buy one copy of windows xp does not mean you own all copies of windows xp. The copyright remains with microsquish. It's exactly the same with websites.
Reply:If the designer sold the rights to the client, then he/she couldn't build another one like it...:-( If it has a very personal and unique touch they'd be foolish to sell it outright. And if they built another one sort of like it, the first client might want to raise hell about it, kapisch?
Reply:The copyright belongs to whoever does the creation, not the people that pay for that creation. Keeping the copyright simply protects the designers work, same as it does for anyone else.
Reply:It depends on the contract signed, ideally you are buying everything including copyrights, you can find many web designers at website like http://definitivelab.com/ .