Do You Really Own Your Website
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Marius_Bezuidenhout]Marius Bezuidenhout
Here are some important tips and some questions to ask your website design or development company. If you don’t understand the ‘ownership’ issues and you are buying a website design or web-based application, this is must-read material for you!
DON’T GET CAUGHT PAYING TWICE.
I recently interviewed a new client who was looking to add a database to his existing site. His current webmaster had completed a business logo and designed the initial interface for the site, and when the client asked for a quote his price far exceeded budget. Long story made short, we found an existing application that would meet the client’s needs for substantially less than custom development would cost, and of course the web- master was advised that he had lost a client. Do you think he got to keep his original website when they moved to another webmaster? Nope. We had to star over again, which meant paying a second time for design.
WEB DESIGN SOURCE CODE
A web designer or developer will produce a website or web- based application on which your business needs to be able to rely. In fact, a web application may be your whole business. This is absolutely the case where a business is 100% online and depends completely on the process built into a website; e-commerce stores are a perfect example of a whole business online.
Web designers create web pages with a combination of image and HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML), a text-based standard language that designer in the world knows. HTML is what is used to hold together the structure of your site, keeping the pretty pictures and text in all the right places. Browsers interpret that HTML and display the site’s image and text.
Your designer will bein your design by “drawing” your website in a graphics program, using shapes, colours, images and fonts piled up in layers to create the final “look and feel” for your new site. Macromedia Fireworks and PhotoShop are two tools that are very often used by professionals, who will then slice up the images and use the resulting smaller images to build your working website. HTML will be used to hold it all together.
Here is the key. You need the original art file that was used to design your site in Macromedia Fireworks or Photoshop or whatever software your designer used. If you don’t get the same file, your next designer will have to start your design from scratch, even if you want mere artwork changes. This is no walk in the park if the original images are not available. Macromedia Fireworks source files have the extension .PNG (yourWebsite.PNG). PhotoShop files have the extension .PSD (yourWebsite.PSD).
Another design issue you may run into is fonts. If your designer uses fancy fonts that are not installed by default on your computer or your future designer’s computer, you may have to substitute fonts one day. In some cases, choosing a new font is not a big issue. However, you may need, for example, the font used in your logo or corporate branding, and it would be ludicrous to lose these merely because you changed designers.
Coca-Cola needs the font used in its branding, and so do you! At the very least, because there may be real copyright issues with transferring the fonts, you need to know the names of the fonts and where you can buy copies of them for your project archive.
Questions to ask your web designer:
1) When you are finished designing my site, will you provide me with the source files used in its design?
2) Will you transfer the ownership (copyright) of these source files to me or my company, or at least give me perpetual license to continue using them and to make revisions if I need to?
3) Will you provide me with the names and files for all non- Windows® fonts used in the design of my new website?
WEB APPLICATION SOURCE CODE
Web developers create programs that work as applications on the internet. They create code that is compiled, usually in real time, at the web server. The code will, for example, connect to a database and extract a set of data, compile it into an HTML table (so that it is readable) and then send to the web browser as pure HTML. The “view source” command does not read the scripting language, because it never leaves the server. If you “view source” from the web browser, you only see the HTML. Some of the code your developer writes will be protected by copyright. Your developer may also buy code in the form of server components, or use code blocks for functionality from other programmers or purchase complete applications in order to finish your site. You need to know that the developer has ensured that you can continue to use software developed for your business for an unlimited period of time, and that any licensing restrictions or recurring licensing costs are disclosed to you before you start the project. Find out if you will be bound forever to a hosting or server plan for your applications.
Here are some questions you may want to ask your web developer:
1) Will you transfer an unlimited perpetual license to me or my company for the use of the applications that you develop for me?
2) Will you disclose any licensing restrictions to me regarding these applications?
3) Will you write code using common standards or languages that I will be able to move to another hosting provider, or eventually to my own server?
4) Can I move my application to another server in the future if it is necessary to do so?
USE OF ENCRYPTION
So your web developer says “yes” to these questions, and you think “Great. I’m home free! Let’s get started.” Two years later you decide it’s time to move your web applications to your own servers because your e-commerce store is screaming busy and the cost of bandwidth and hosting is killing your profits, you start the process of moving your application to your new server and call up your webmaster for help, but he’s gone to university in the States and “isn’t doing that anymore.” You think to yourself “I guess I should have used a more established company…” and you find yourself a new webmaster.
Incidentally, I am often told by new clients that I am their second, third, sometimes even fourth web developer. So we start the move, but wait, something is wrong... portions of the source code are encrypted. Even the government couldn’t decrypt it! We have to rewrite those blocks of code and the client has to pay… again. If your site’s source HTML or application scripting language is encrypted, then it may have to be rewritten or you will have no way to add functionality or even to fix bugs without involving the original developer, who holds the key to the encryption. They are quite clever, aren’t they?
Now there are some good reasons to encrypt some portions of source code, even in a web application. Most web applications contain, in the source code, database, username and password details in one of their files. This is a great example of a code block that should be encrypted before it is placed into a shared hosting environment.
If your web developer is going to encrypt portions of the source code, make sure you get a copy of the unencrypted code for your project archive. In this manner you will be able to work with a new developer if or when you need to.
Questions to ask your web developer regarding encryption:
1) Will you he encrypting any or all of the source code in the application you are developing for me?
2) Will you provide me with a copy of the original source code prior to encryption?
TECHNOLOGIES
There are a number of technologies used in the development of sites and applications: Pre-Hypertext Processor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Active Server Pages dot Net (ASP.NET) and Cold Fusion, to name a few. All of these scripting languages connect sites to databases and functions on servers, such as mail or the uploading of files. All of these technologies are widely used and widely available, and many developers know these languages. Some less well-known programming and scripting languages may he able to do a lot of the same things, but their pitfall is that it may be more difficult to find a programmer who knows the language.
Some scripting or programming languages like Microsoft’s Active Server Page or Active Server Page dot Net technologies are developed specifically for use on Microsoft operating systems. These technologies are difficult, if not impossible, to run on a Linux operating system. When your programmer selects a language for your web application, he may be getting you into a long-term relationship with a particular operating system and/or software vendor. This is okay, as long as you recognise the long term ramifications of these choices, some of which may entail costs in the future.
Questions to ask your web developer regarding programming languages:
Is the technology you use tied to one particular operating system, or can I host my site on my choice of servers with my choice of operating system? More specifically, can I host my application on either a Microsoft® web server or a Linux server?
TRANFERIBILITY
Make sure that you are able to move your site to a server with comparable standards in the future, should you wish to do so. Moving a site to a new server is not necessarily due to a break down in the relationship with your web services provider; you may he forced to move if your existing server can no longer handle your traffic bandwidth, or if costs become too high in a shared hosting environment and you find it more economical to set up your own server and host your own applications. If you choose to host your own applications, the cost ramifications of your earlier choices will hit your pocketbook. For example, if your site was developed using PHP, an open-source scripting language for websites, then the cost of your new server will likely not include any software licensing because the operating system (Linux) is free. If, on the other hand, your site is developed using .ASP or .ASP.NET, you are going to have to buy expensive server licenses from The Big Guy.
CAN YOU USE YOUR SITE INTO THE FUTURE?
If you commission a web designer or developer to complete a project for you, make sure that you have an agreement in place that clearly specifies you can continue to use the project and related source files when it is completed. Check the service agreement you sign with your web company. Of course, if there is no documentation then you will not know if you own your site or applications.
IN SUMMARY
There are some good reasons for designers and developers to protect their rights and ensure their future earning potential. As the client or purchaser of design services, you need to understand where you stand with regard to choices that will be made on your behalf regarding your website or web-based applications.
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