Do you actually own your website?
Who owns the domain, the files and the photos decides what happens the day you want to change something, or leave. Five checks before you pay anyone, including us.
The short answer: not always. If your website lives on a builder like Wix or Squarespace, the platform owns the working site, and it comes down when you stop paying. If someone else registered your domain, they control your address. And in Canada, the photographer owns the copyright in your photos by default, not you. All three are checkable before any money moves.
Who owns the domain name?
Your domain is your address on the internet, and it belongs to whoever it is registered to. Plenty of small businesses in Vancouver discover years later that their web designer registered the domain under the designer’s own account. Nothing sinister has to happen for that to hurt: the designer retires, changes email, or stops replying, and now your address is stuck in an account you cannot reach.
The fix is one sentence before you start: “Register the domain in my name, on my email.” A good designer will do it without blinking. It is also how we do it by default.
Who owns the website itself?
This is where website builders and custom sites genuinely differ. On Wix or Squarespace you are renting: the working site runs only on their platform, the monthly fee is what keeps it up, and you cannot pack the site up and move it to another host. You can export some content, but not the site.
A hand built site is a folder of files. Whoever holds those files can host them anywhere, which is why the question “do I get the files?” tells you so much about what you are really buying.
Who owns your photos? The one almost nobody checks
Since November 7, 2012, Canadian copyright law makes the photographer the first owner of copyright in a photo, even when you commissioned it and paid for it. Before 2012 it was the other way around. Unless your agreement says otherwise, what you get by default is personal, non commercial use.
Read that again as a business owner: you can pay for a shoot and still not have the right to run those photos in an ad. It happens quietly, because nobody involved ever wrote the rights down. Whoever shoots your business, get the copyright, or a written licence broad enough for ads and social media.
Who owns what, compared
| Avelio | Agency | Freelancer | Website builder | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The domain | Yoursregistered in your name | Usually yours. Ask | Varies. Ask | Yours if you bought it |
| The website files | Yourshost them anywhere | Usually yours after final payment | Usually yours. Ask | The platform’s |
| The photos | Yours, in writing | Often licensed, not owned. Ask | Photographer owns by default | Stock, or your own |
| If you stop paying monthly | Nothing changesthere is no monthly | Depends on the retainer | Depends who hosts | The site comes down |
Five questions to ask, in writing
- Whose name is the domain registered in? The right answer is yours.
- Can this website move to another host later? If the answer is no, you are renting.
- Who holds copyright in the photos and video? In Canada the default is the photographer, so silence means no.
- What stops working if I stop paying? Ask for the list.
- Do I get the files? Simple question, very revealing answer.
How we handle ownership at Avelio
The domain goes in your name, the website is a folder of files you keep, and the photos and video from our shoots are yours, written into the agreement. Your only ongoing cost is the domain, about $20 a year. We build websites for businesses anywhere in Canada, and we drive out for photo and video across the Lower Mainland: Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Langley and Abbotsford. Prices are on the pricing page.
Common questions about website ownership
You own your content, and your domain if you bought it. The working website belongs to the platform: stop paying and it comes down, and you cannot move it to another host.
Whoever it is registered to. If a designer registered it under their account, they control your address. Ask for it in your name, on your email.
In Canada, the photographer, by default, since November 2012. You get personal, non commercial use unless your agreement says more. Get the rights in writing.
The domain name, whether the site can move hosts, who holds the photo and video copyright, what stops working if you stop paying, and whether you get the files.
Yes. Domain in your name, files yours, photos and video yours in writing. The only ongoing cost is the domain.
Sources
- The Copyright Modernization Act: Canada’s new rights and rules
- CAPIC, copyright law for Canadian photographers
- Canada’s photography copyright regime: clearance challenges
Keep reading: what a website costs in Vancouver · website builder or web designer · what business photos cost
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