Who owns what

This website

The content on this website — its text, layout, design, logo, graphics, code and photography — is owned by Jones Digital unless stated otherwise, and is protected by UK copyright law. This covers the site as a whole as well as its individual elements. A page can be protected in more than one way at once: the words are a literary work, the design and photography are artistic works, the code is a separate work, and the combination of them is protected too.

You are welcome to read this site, share links to it, and quote briefly from it for fair and reasonable purposes such as comment, review, news reporting or teaching, provided you attribute the quote to Jones Digital and link back to the page it came from. Beyond that, you must not copy substantial parts of the site, republish it, resell it, feed it wholesale into another tool or service, or present it as your own without our written permission.

What we are happy for you to do

Linking to any page is always fine and never needs asking. Quoting a short passage with a credit and a link is fine. Printing a page for your own internal reference is fine. If you run a directory, newsletter, blog or training resource and you would like to reproduce something longer, email us — permission is usually given quickly, and we would rather be asked than find out afterwards.

What is not permitted

• Copying this site's text or design into your own website, brochure or proposal.
• Reusing our layouts, page structures or visual sections as a template for another project.
• Selling, sublicensing or redistributing any part of this site or its assets.
• Using automated tools to scrape or bulk-download content from this site.
• Removing or altering any copyright notice, credit or attribution.

The Jones Digital name and logo

“Jones Digital”, our logo and our visual identity are our trade marks and brand assets. They may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not ours, or in any way that suggests an endorsement, partnership or certification that does not exist, without our written permission.

Copyright and trade marks are not the same thing, and it is worth knowing which is which. Copyright protects the artwork itself — the actual drawing of the logo is ours and copying it is an infringement of copyright. Trade mark protection concerns the name or mark used in trade, so that customers are not misled about who they are dealing with. A client's own logo and name raise the same questions in reverse, and we treat them on the same basis.

If you are writing about us, reviewing our work, or putting together a directory listing, using our name as plain text is fine. Using our logo in that context is usually fine too — send us a quick note and we will confirm.

What copyright means in practice

Copyright exists automatically. You do not apply for it, you do not register it with anyone, and you do not have to pay a fee. The moment a piece of work is created and written down, drawn, photographed or saved to a file, copyright exists in it. On this site, copyright notices carry a year and a name, but those are there for clarity rather than to create the right — the right exists either way.

The default position is the one most people get wrong: the person who creates a work owns it, not the person who paid for it or commissioned it. If you pay a freelancer or an agency to design a logo, the designer owns the copyright in that logo unless there is a written agreement transferring it. Ownership only passes when it is assigned in writing and signed.

That is why we put ownership in writing on every project rather than relying on assumptions. Our Terms of Service set out the transfer, and it takes effect when the project is paid for in full, as described below.

Copyright also lasts a long time, and it covers the expression of an idea rather than the idea itself. We cannot stop someone else designing a website with a similar layout, and equally nobody can stop us using a colour, a font pairing or a style of photography that another business has used. What is protected is the specific finished work — the actual artwork, wording, code and design as created.

Copyright in client work

This is the part most clients want to know, so here it is plainly.

On a website or branding project, ownership of the final deliverables — your finished website design, your logo and your brand assets — transfers to you once your project has been paid for in full. Until payment is complete, the work remains the property of Jones Digital. That is not a trick or a hostage clause; it is simply the point at which the exchange is finished, and it matches what happens on almost every professional project.

In practice, what you receive is full and unrestricted use of the finished work. You can use your logo on signage, packaging, social media, stationery and merchandise. You can use your website, edit it, extend it and hand it to another developer. You do not need to ask us for permission and you do not owe us a fee each time you use your own brand.

A few things sit outside that transfer, and it is worth being upfront about them:

• Stock imagery, licensed fonts and third-party software are covered by their own licences — you receive the licence to use them, not ownership of them.
• Open-source components used in your build remain under their respective open-source licences.
• We retain the right to show the finished work in our portfolio, on this website and in our marketing, unless you ask us not to.
• Our own underlying tools, frameworks, processes and pre-existing code remain ours, though you have a perpetual licence to use them as part of your delivered project.

These points are covered in more detail in our project terms, which you receive before work begins. Where anything here conflicts with those terms, the project terms take precedence.

Design files and source files

There is a distinction here that causes more confusion than any other part of copyright, so it is worth spelling out. The finished work and the files used to make it are two different things, and they are not automatically the same package.

What you receive as standard

On a branding project you receive your finished logo and brand assets in the formats you need — vector files such as SVG or EPS for print and signage, and PNG or JPG for digital use — along with your colour references, typography details and any brand guidelines we have prepared. On a website project you receive the finished, working site.

What sits outside the standard handover

Editable working files — layered design documents, the development project and its build configuration, and our internal notes and drafts — are not part of a standard handover. They are our working tools, and they often contain techniques, component libraries and reusable material that we use across client projects.

If you would like those files, just ask before the project starts. We will tell you what is available and whether there is an additional cost, and we will confirm it in writing. It is far easier to agree this at the outset than halfway through, or a year later, and we have never had a reason to refuse a reasonable request. If we are handing a project over to another developer, we will of course make sure they have what they need to continue the work.

Third-party assets and their licences

Almost every website and brand project uses something made by someone else — stock photography, a licensed typeface, an icon set, a plugin or a third-party service. None of these become yours to own, and none of them transfer with the project. Instead, you hold a licence to use them within the terms that the original creator or supplier set out.

We choose assets whose licences allow the use you have in mind, and we will tell you where anything needs your attention. What we cannot do is take responsibility for a licence we did not choose and that sits in your name.

What clients commonly need to know

• Stock imagery is licensed, not bought outright. A licence usually covers defined uses, and a very large print run, a national advertising campaign or merchandise use may sit outside it and need upgrading.
• Licensed fonts are often supplied on a subscription or per-use basis. If a licence is held in your name, renewing it is your responsibility — if it lapses, files that depend on that font can fail to display or render correctly.
• Plugins, themes and third-party services come with their own terms, and renewals, support and updates are typically the site owner's responsibility once a project has launched.
• If you later move a site to another provider or developer, some assets may need to be licensed again in your own name.

Where we can, we hold licences in your business name from the start so that everything stays under your control. Where a licence sits with us, we will say so, and we will help you move it across at handover. If you are taking over a site that someone else built, it is worth checking which assets are licensed to whom before you make changes — see our maintenance and support service if you would like us to review it for you.

Material you send us

During a project you will send us things — text, images, videos, logos, documents. You keep ownership of everything you supply, and by sending it you confirm that you have the right to use it and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights.

In plain terms, this means the photographs are either your own or properly licensed, the copy is yours or written with permission, and any logo or artwork you pass on was either created for you or licensed to you. It is a simple ask: send us what you have the right to send.

The reason we ask is practical. If a claim does arise from material you have supplied, it lands on the party who supplied it, not on us — we had no way of knowing where it came from. That is why we ask you to stand behind what you send, and why we will always flag anything that looks questionable before we use it.

How we use what you send

We use your material only to carry out the work you have asked for, plus anything closely connected to it such as preparing your site, hosting it or showing you drafts. We do not sell your material, and we do not use it to promote our own business beyond the portfolio use described below. When a project ends we will keep your working files for as long as we need them to support you, and we will remove them on request.

The way we handle personal information within that material is covered separately in our Privacy Policy.

Open-source components

Websites are built on open-source foundations — frameworks, libraries, fonts and utilities released by their authors for anyone to use. These remain under their own licences, usually permissive ones that allow commercial use without a fee, but with conditions attached. The most common conditions are that the original copyright notice stays in place and that the licence text travels with the code.

In practice this rarely affects anything you will see. Some components are visible in a page's source code rather than on the page itself, and where we know a component includes an attribution requirement we will tell you about it so that nothing is missed when the site is handed over. Removing an attribution that a licence requires is a licence breach, so it is worth leaving those notices alone even though they are easy to overlook.

We favour open-source tools precisely because they leave you free rather than locked in. They do not restrict where your site can be hosted, who can work on it, or what you can do with it, which means you are never tied to us to keep your own website running.

Moral rights and credit

Alongside copyright there are moral rights, which belong to the person who created a work rather than to whoever owns it afterwards. Two matter most in design work. The first is the right to be identified as the author of a work. The second is the right to object to a work being treated in a derogatory way — for example, having your design altered so badly that it damages your reputation.

On a client project, you own and control your brand, and you will never be obliged to credit us on your own website. Many clients do not, and that is completely normal. Where you are happy to, a discreet line in a website footer is always appreciated, but it is never a condition of the work.

In the other direction, we will not attach our name to your website or your brand materials without your agreement, and if you would rather nobody knew the work was ours, we will respect that.

There is also a practical point here about altering finished work. You are free to change your own logo, colours, copy or website at any time — it is yours. We would simply say that significant changes to a finished design are best made by someone who understands how the parts fit together, because small edits can quietly undermine the consistency the design was built around. If you would like a hand, we are always happy to help, and our brand identity and logo design service covers ongoing support.

Photography and commissioned shoots

Photography is one of the most common sources of copyright confusion in web and brand projects, mainly because it is so easy to lift an image from a search engine without thinking about it. Photographs are protected works, and being publicly visible online does not put them in the public domain or make them free to use.

Where we arrange or commission a shoot for your project, we will tell you what the arrangement includes and who holds the copyright in the resulting images. Photographers vary widely in how they work: some transfer copyright on payment, many retain it and grant the client a broad licence to use the images commercially, and usage terms can be limited by time, media or territory. Whichever applies, we will make it clear rather than leave you guessing.

Before we book anything, we will check that the terms cover what you actually need — your website, your social channels, printed material and paid advertising if you use it — so that an image on your homepage does not turn out to be licensed for a single year, or for the web only.

If you are supplying your own photography, the same rule applies as for anything else you send us: please make sure you have the right to use it, including images taken by a photographer you hired previously. If you are unsure, ask — it is a much easier conversation now than after a claim.

Putting our work in our portfolio

Clients sometimes assume that once a project is finished and paid for, the agency can no longer show it anywhere. It is worth being clear about how we handle this, because it sits between two reasonable positions: your right to control your own brand, and our own copyright in the design work we created.

Our approach is to be open and to defer to you. We will show finished work as described in the section below, we will write about it at a general level rather than as a detailed business teardown, and we will never present a client's numbers, strategy or internal information as our own story to tell.

If your business is in a sector where visibility is sensitive — a rebrand before launch, a new venture that is not yet public, work for a client under a confidentiality agreement — tell us at the start and we will keep it out of everything entirely. That is a normal request, and we will not treat it as a problem.

Showing our work publicly

We are proud of the work we produce and we like to show it. We may display finished websites and brand identities on this site, in our portfolio and on our social channels, and may describe the project at a general level. If a site is live, we may link to it and take screenshots of the pages that are publicly visible.

We will not publish confidential business information, commercial figures or anything you have shared with us in confidence, and we will not present your brand in a way that implies a partnership or endorsement that does not exist.

If you would prefer a project not to be featured at all, we will happily agree to that — just let us know at the start of the project, or at any point afterwards. Similarly, if you are happy for us to show the work but would rather we did not name the client, we can describe it in general terms instead. There is no charge for either, and no awkwardness.

AI tools and generated content

AI tools are now part of how design and web work is done, and we would rather be straightforward about it than say nothing. Where we use them, we use them as tools within a human-led process — for drafting, exploring options, tidying up repetitive work or checking accessibility — not as a replacement for the thinking, judgement and craft that clients pay us for.

The law around the copyright status of AI-generated output is still developing, and we are not going to overstate what is settled. Our position is deliberately cautious: we do not rely on AI-generated material for the parts of a project that carry your brand's identity, and we do not pass AI-generated imagery off as commissioned photography. Where a tool has materially shaped a deliverable in a way you would want to know about, we will tell you.

If you have a preference — for example, that no AI tools are used on your project at all — say so and we will work that way. It is an easy thing to agree at the start and an awkward one to discover later.

Cancellation and non-payment

Because ownership transfers on full payment, a project that ends early or is never paid for is not in the same position as a completed one. This is not intended to be heavy-handed, but it is worth being clear about, since it is the situation where assumptions tend to go untested.

If a project is cancelled partway through

Copyright in the work produced up to that point stays with Jones Digital until the amounts due for work completed have been paid. Once they are, we will hand over the work produced and the files set out in the project scope, and you are free to take it elsewhere. Our Refund Policy explains how deposits and part-completed projects are handled.

If an invoice is not paid

Where a completed project has not been paid for, ownership does not transfer, and we retain the right to ask for the work to be taken down. We would always rather resolve things by talking: in almost every case a delay is a cash-flow problem rather than a dispute, and a short conversation sorts it out. If you are struggling with a payment, tell us — we will usually find a way to work around it.

Reporting infringement

If you believe that content on this website infringes your copyright or other intellectual property rights, please contact us. Email is the quickest route, and it is the address at the bottom of this page.

To help us deal with it quickly, please include:

• A description of the work you believe has been infringed, and confirmation that you own it or are authorised to act for the owner.
• The address of the page on this site where the material appears.
• Enough detail for us to identify the material in question — a screenshot or a short description is fine.
• Your name, email address and, if you are acting for someone else, who you are acting for.
• Anything you think is relevant about how the material came to be on our site.

How we respond

We take these reports seriously and will investigate promptly. We will acknowledge your message, look into where the material came from, and come back to you. If we find that material has been used in error, we will remove it or correct the attribution without delay — most reports we receive are simple mistakes, and they are usually resolved quickly and without fuss.

The same applies in reverse. If we believe material we created for you has been reused without permission, or if you spot our work somewhere it should not be, tell us and we will look into it.

A note on accuracy

This page is a summary written to be understandable, not a substitute for formal legal advice, and it does not create any contractual obligation on its own. It sets out how we approach copyright in ordinary practice, in plain language, so that clients know where they stand.

If you need certainty on a specific point — particularly around ownership of a deliverable, a licensing question or a possible dispute — please check your project terms, speak to a qualified adviser, or get in touch with us before relying on anything here. We are happy to confirm our position in writing, and if a question is one we cannot answer confidently we will say so rather than guess.

Contact us

For any copyright question, permission request or infringement report, email us at contactus@jonesdigital.co. We aim to reply to copyright enquiries within a couple of working days, and we will always acknowledge anything that looks urgent.

See also our Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy and our Cookie Policy.