Licensing and ownership: How do you protect your work?

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It's been a week since we launched The Freelance Contract and already we've received tons of feedback from members across the country. With such a wide variety of freelancers working as consultants, creatives, etc, etc etc, it is impossible to codify all in a single agreement. However, our goal is that The Freelance Contract should be standard and easy-to-use for freelancers across all kinds of industries.

That's why we need you to tell us what it's missing and what could be clarified. Together, we will evolve The Freelance Contract into a common standard for all freelancers – to protect and honor freelance work.

The first area where we’re taking a deep dive it in licensing and ownership issues. Critical to artists, designers and many other freelancers in creative industries, licensing basically means who has the copyright to the work that you create, for how long, and in what capacities. While many freelancers do "work for hire," we realize that many others use a number of different creative licenses and clauses to protect their work.

We want to open up a conversation - have you ever had this type of dispute? What types of contract clauses / considerations are most important to protecting ownership rights to your work? Help us add more industry-specific clause options to The Freelance Contract by sharing your comments and ideal clauses in the comments below.