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