Who owns your website: domain, code, content, accounts - Zephyra Studio

A website is yours as far as it stands in your name: domain, hosting, accounts and licences, plus the copyright a contract expressly assigns to you. Under the Serbian Law on Copyright and Related Rights, copyright contracts must be in writing, and when the scope of transferred rights is unclear, less is presumed to have been transferred. So everything you expect to receive has to be in the contract, and the domain, hosting and accounts are safest opened in your own name from day one. Below are eight parts of a website to ask about, the clauses a contract should contain, and a check you can do yourself without technical knowledge. This is general information, not legal advice.

A website is not one thing: eight parts, eight questions

When you say an agency built your website, in practice you received several separate things that can belong to different people. For each one, ask whose name it is in and who can transfer it.

• Domain: the registrant should be you or your company. For .rs domains, changes to the data go through the accredited registrar, and the RNIDS WHOIS (rnids.rs/whois) shows which accredited registrar manages a domain.
• Hosting: the account the site runs on should be yours, and the agency can have access as a user.
• Source code and a custom theme: computer programs are copyright works under Article 2 of the law, so the rights in them are a matter for the contract.
• Open systems such as WordPress: WordPress.org states that derivative works, meaning themes and plugins, inherit the GPL licence. Your rights there differ from the rights in code the agency wrote only for you.
• Paid add-ons: a licence for a tool such as Elementor Pro is tied to an account and activated on a limited number of sites, with the option to transfer it. Ask which account bought it and who renews it.
• Content: texts, photographs and the logo are created by authors, and the contract should say who created them and what was assigned to you. For fonts and images, check the licence and whose name it is in.
• Search Console: a property must have at least one verified owner, and if every verification token is removed, the remaining users and delegated owners lose access after a grace period.
• Analytics and Business Profile: in Google Analytics only an administrator manages users, and a Business Profile has one primary owner who removes users and transfers ownership.

What the law says

The Law on Copyright and Related Rights (consolidated text, Official Gazette of RS 104/2009 to 66/2019) has several provisions that hit a website contract directly. They are paraphrased here, and you should check the current version before signing, because the law changes. The rules described are Serbian, and in other countries the default rules differ.

• Article 67: copyright contracts are concluded in writing, unless the law says otherwise.
• Article 68: when it is unclear what was transferred and to what extent, less is presumed to have been transferred.
• Article 62: an assignment can be exclusive or non-exclusive. If the contract does not say which, it is treated as non-exclusive, and the recipient is then not entitled to prevent others from using the same work.
• Article 63: an assignment can be limited by type of use, territory and time. If you do not want limits, the contract should say so.
• Article 69: a copyright contract contains the parties, the identification of the work, the rights assigned, the fee and any limits on content, territory and time.
• Article 65: transfer of ownership of the original copy of a work does not imply acquiring the copyright, so a file you received is not the same as the rights in it.
• Article 98: if a computer program or database was created by an employee, the employer is the permanent holder of all exclusive economic rights unless the contract says otherwise. At an agency that means the rights first belong to the agency, and pass to you only through what the contract assigns. With a freelancer the author is the freelancer, so the rights stay with them until a contract assigns them.

Clauses a build contract should have

These clauses follow from the provisions above and from the eight-part split. Have a lawyer read them before you sign.

• Which rights are assigned (in code, design, texts, graphics) and whether the assignment is exclusive or non-exclusive.
• Limits by type of use, territory and time, or an explicit statement that there are none.
• Handover of the complete source code, in a repository you control, and the handover date.
• A list of third-party components (themes, plugins, fonts, images) with the licence and the account each is under.
• Domain, hosting and accounts (analytics, Search Console, Business Profile) opened in your name, or transferred at handover.
• What happens to the site if you stop paying for maintenance: the contract should say the site is not switched off and your access is not withdrawn.
• A written handover: a list of what was delivered and confirmation that every login works.
• Who is responsible for content you supply (texts, photographs) and for the licences of images the agency inserts.

A check you can do yourself

None of this needs technical knowledge. Do it before the final payment, while the agency is still working for you.

• Open rnids.rs/whois, enter the domain and see which accredited registrar manages it. If you have no account with that registrar or with the agency it was registered through, ask who is recorded as the registrant.
• Ask for confirmation of whose name the hosting account is in and whether you have your own access.
• In Search Console, in the user settings, check whether you are a verified owner or only a delegated one. If the agency token is the only verification, add your own (a DNS record) before the agency finishes. Google says the DNS record must not be removed even after verification succeeds.
• In Google Analytics, check that you are an administrator.
• In Business Profile, check who the primary owner is. A newly added owner or manager needs 7 days before they can become primary owner, so add yourself early.
• Ask for a list of licences and accounts for every paid add-on.

If something is already set up wrongly

Start with a written request to the agency, with a list of what you want and a deadline. Keep the invoices and the correspondence. Transfer first what is hardest to get back: the domain and access to Search Console.

If the agency does not reply or refuses, that is the moment to talk to a lawyer, because what the contract says decides.

Related guides

Sources

Key takeaways

• A website is eight separate parts, and for each one you need to know whose name it is in.
• The law requires copyright contracts in writing and presumes less was transferred when scope is unclear, so do not assume what is not written down.
• A contract that does not say exclusive or non-exclusive is treated as non-exclusive.
• Open the domain, hosting and accounts in your own name from day one, and verify Search Console with a DNS record that stays in place.

Conclusion

What you open in your own name at the start is the easiest to fix, and copyright after the work is finished is the hardest. So the order of questions to an agency should be the reverse of the usual one: first whose name the accounts are opened in, then the contract, and design last. Ask us the same questions, in writing, before you sign anything.