Mary,

You may with to request Circular 61 from the US Copytirhg office. (202)
707-9100

My understanding is this:

The "Author" is the owner of the copyright.  Unlike photography, ownership of
computer software, commisioned as a "work for hire" would result in the
contractee having copyright on the program.  In other words, if you hired me
to write a program for you, typically, you would be the copyright owner.
However, if you gave these rights away in the contract that would be a
different case.

To address some of the issues you raised on a practical level:

>If the museum ends up owning it, do they have rights/access to change it or
>"tune it up" if necessary?

1. If you don't get the original source code for the program then you can not
modify it.
2. It is not unusual for 3rd party tools to be used for software development
for specific functions, even though you may have the source code, you may not
be able to modify and compile a working version of the orpgram (.EXE) anyway.
3. Even though the you may have commissioned the software, routines to access
special hardware may be considered proprietary and may be previously
copyrighted.
4. To change the program, you will also need to buy copy of the compiler, or
authoring software used to develop it.
5. If you alter a program... any warranty you had for the software would
probably be kaput!

>If the museum owns it and the software becomes very popular and other museums
>or visitors want to buy it for their use, does the developer have any rights
>to claim part of the sale profits?

>If the developer retains ownership, can he/she sell the same program to other
>museums/clients even if it was designed for the original museum's specific
>use?

You can't really turn around and just sell a program you are using for an
exhibit.  Remember that your program consists of many components, graphics and
system files needed to run the application are all seperate files from the
.EXE (executable).  In order to properly distribute the application, a SETUP
program may be required.  Also, properly designed _exhibit_ software will not
give visitors access to functions which close (end) the program, select a
printer, or any of the other features which must be present in a distrubutable
version of a program.  Your exhibit software may have also been developed to
maximize video and graphic resolution and thus may perform well on the machine
supplied for the exhibit, but when you start selling software, you have to
figure for the lowest common denominator in system performance.  In other
words, if you have a program which was designed to run on a Pentium 166 with
64megs of ram and a massive hard drive, expect a lot of returns at the gift
shop from the people with 486's or p-100's.

So, after all of the time and expense spent preparing the software for re-sale
(dont forget packaging as well), how much revenue can you really expect.

If you feel that the possibility for sales to other museums or the sale of the
program in your gift shop exists, you are better off discussing this with the
software developer when you are specifying the software.  The software
developer is the one who is qualified to evaluate your expectations for your
exhibit software and discuss what effect this has on a retail version.  If you
are a shrewd negotiator, you may grant the software developer a percentage of
sales to make the modifications needed for retail distribution.  If the
program becomes a big success, both of you benefit.

And on a final level... I have found that the software that I design typically
can not have any one clear owner anyway.  Often, my client or myself receive
permission to use graphics or video in an exhibit program, but do not have any
other distribution rights for these components.

The bottom line is... after the effort and cost of developing a program for
resale, you better have a big market and a good distribution channel.  Let's
face it, you can go to the store and buy a program for $20-$50 that will have
all kinds of sound, graphics and video including telephone or Internet
support.  Public expectations for graphics and performance are high and the
software industry is competive.

Mark C. Vang
Freya Ventures
* Interactive touch-screen computer exhibits and museum technology *
2100 Mediterranean Ave. Suite 15
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 340-0099