Reading Room Articles

The expectation that freelancers and small firms WILL include source files for ALL jobs is one that is becoming pervasive in the industry as a result of freelancers and small firms believing that "the more we give this client, the more likely we will retain them as

I've lugged my laptop computer with me on travels all over the world.  I hated hauling the damned thing through airports and being forced to take it out of the bag every time I shuffled through security.  By the time I found a free wifi location at my destination, I

As a graphic and web designer, I have run into numerous requests for spec work in my career. My last article for the Professional Artists League covered some of these experiences. Several colleagues have voiced their opinions that they never do spec work, and they

I received an excellent comment from our post Defending Work-For-Hire and found myself writing a rather lengthy response, so instead of extending the comments I decided to write a follow-up to the first article.

It’s about turf; it is critical to avoid freelancers

I recently had a colleague who owns a local marketing firm put forth a mild defense of work-for-hire by stating, "there's a good reason why companies would use Work-For-Hire."

The most common defense of work-for-hire boils down to "they have a right to protect their

In late 2007, as a freelance web and graphic designer, I occasionally perused craigslist for project and job postings. I have since become all-too-familiar with what I now call the curse of craigslist - 99% of craigslist posts are posted by the devil, are complete

Hands-down, one of the most creative and simple expressions of humanity I have ever seen.  The author (dancer), Matt, started this as a fun way to keep friends and family up-to-speed on his travels.  It became so wildy popular, he and his dancing eventually caught

One thing that I’ve been trying to do here at Pixels and Code is run as close to paper-free as possible. For a few years now, my wife and I have shredded and recycled all of our waste paper. I’ve simply transferred that thinking to my office space.

I do print things

In twelve years, our intrepid editor has only come across two legitimate Spec jobs. But in that same time, Work-For-Hire has been an omnipresent shadow. In fact, in the past two years alone, we have seen an incredible increase in the number of local companies, ad

 In essence, Stop Work-For-Hire is attempting to bring professional artists together in an effort to create a sense of "team" in an increasingly hostile business environment. How does one create a groundswell of support among cliques of small studios and independent

Please visit the link below, sign the petition, and help us get the word out; STOP WORK-FOR-HIRE.

Over the past several years, there has been a disturbing increase in the number of companies and creative agencies mandating work-for-hire for all of their freelance

At 16toads, we often receive referrals from other small business owners who have a colleague in dire need of a web site or a “fix”. Often times, the individual who was referred has already gone the through the web design process with another company. All too often,

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Network Neutrality, the principle that protects our ability go where we want and do what we choose online.

We must pass this bill to protect everyone's right to search the Web, share videos and photos, connect

This will allow large corporations to take advantage of the limited understanding of Federal Copyright Law by artists, illustrators and other individuals who provide creative services.

These two bills would require the authors of so-called "orphaned works" to go