Under copyright law the person who "translates an idea into a fixed, tangible medium of expression" is considered the "author" so in this case, where the design ideas have already been put into a CAD drawing, the project owner has the right to claim authorship if he/she so wishes and would not be "playing fast and loose with a fiction". However, the phrase "finishing touches" does not make it very clear what modifications the architect will make or if he/she will be professionally responsible for those modifications or if they involve structural, waterproofing, code compliance, and/or material and installation specifications. The architect could just be correcting the roof plane geometry on the roof plan and the elevations and/or adding dimensions with a more sophisticated CAD system. If the architect does not put his/her name (and/or stamp) on the documents and doesn't intend to take responsibility for them (must take all or no responsibility under typical registration law) then the owner can be the author and have a stronger claim to ownership. On the other hand, if the owner wants the architect to take full responsibility for the documents in their entirety and to put his/her name (and/or stamp) on them, then the architect will be the author. In either case, ownership of the documents and the copyright can be established by modifying the typical document ownership clause in a standard Owner-Architect agreement form. I can't advise you which form to use because I don't know enough about the project or the architect's expected role but don't use the term, "work for hire" anywhere in the agreement unless you want to be responsible for the architect's work.

Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.

I'm biting the bullet and looking for a new receiver with at least six HDMI 'ports'. I don't think we will be 'streaming' anything unless the offerings improve for our 'demographic'. LOL Today AT&T emailed me, touting their "U-Verse" -- which sounds like it would replace the DirecTV HD-DVR they already provide us, bundled with landline and internet. The promo seems aimed at people who need 24/7 'connectivity' via hand helds...or music. I doubt they have any wider selection movies on offer than what I saw on Amazon and Netflix. Any DVD's we get from the library that are longer than a movie have two-week check-outs. We're in town a couple times a week anyway, so detouring a block to the library is easy. We still sometimes check out 'real' books, too. LOL

I'm so with you, TG! Vote and make your voice heard. It's not about winning--it's about showing up and being counted. Years ago, during some kind of tumult, the TV news interviewed a well spoken, nicely put together young man, who was identified as a leader in the community that was outraged in that crisis. I stopped what I was doing to listen to him because I thought he'd have something informative to say. Instead, he was mostly angry (fair, given the situation) and was saying that his community weren't going to vote so long as whatever they were protesting continued. I don't remember the cause, but I do remember him. And I remember feeling so disappointed that a leader, and a seemingly intelligent and educated leader, would say something so ignorant and dangerous. It's true that smaller communities, voting groups, ethnic blocks, etc., don't always see themselves in the winners of elections, but putting aside the importance of voting on the laws that make it to the ballot, it's the strength of the voting block, and the numbers of count-on-'em-to-show-up voters, that gets the attention from those who are elected, and from the party stalwarts of all parties. If you have voters in numbers, the bigwigs will come knocking and offering you a piece of the pie! The reason why so many cater to old white guys is that old white guys vote! OTOH, I also agree with you on the informed electorate. In Australia, you're required to vote. I don't think you actually have to fill in the ballot, but you do have to put it in the box, or whatever they do. That means that the apathetic, who are forced to vote despite their druthers, are voting for the one with a pretty name or good hair or who has the voter's lucky number on the ballot. Gyr_Falcon, there are places where the sample ballot was traditionally printed in the newspaper (so you'd have to pay for it, though it's probably also online now where you'd only have to pay for the paper and ink--though you might have to go to a library and ask the librarian to print it for you if you were a senior with no computer knowledge and failing eyesight, and that could in itself be onerous). These sample ballots don't look like the actual election materials, like ours do; they're formatted however the publisher feels like doing it. A couple of decades ago, parties and interest groups started mailing their own sample ballots that looked more like the election materials as part of their campaigning, though they often filled them out with the choices they were promoting. There are also probably third party analyses of the laws, and I think some places have far fewer referenda (if any) than we do, and, maybe they print the text in the newspaper too. But you have to work at it much harder if you have to chase all that down, that's for sure!