In Canada, you own the code, copy and photos an agency or freelancer made for your website only if whoever holds the copyright signs a written assignment to you. That is usually the agency itself, or the freelancer. Paying the invoice isn't enough, because the Copyright Act lets copyright move only in signed writing. Anything you or your own employees made for the business is already yours. Your .ca domain is held by whoever is named as the Registrant in CIRA's registry.
The answer to "who owns my website" depends on the part, because a website is several parts with different rules: the domain, the hosting, the code and design, the words and photos, the business email and the Google accounts around them. This page gives the contract clauses first, then the rule behind each part and where to check it. It is written for owner-run Ontario businesses that hired an agency or a freelancer. We're a Toronto studio that sells builds with a monthly plan, so we have a stake in the answer, and our own terms are at the end. This is general information about federal and Ontario law as of November 2026, not legal advice, and we aren't lawyers. If you're in a dispute with an agency, about to end a contract, or your business depends on the site for leads, have a lawyer read your contract.
What should my website contract say before I sign?
Ask for these seven things in writing:
- The domain is registered with your business as the Registrant (the corporation's exact legal name if you're incorporated, or your own name if you're a sole proprietor), at a registrar account your business controls, with your email on it. The agency can be added as a user.
- Copyright in the custom code, design files, copy and any commissioned photos is assigned to your business in a signed document. Say when it takes effect. On final payment for the build is the common middle ground; "when you leave" means the agency owns the work for as long as you work together.
- The agency confirms it holds what it's assigning, including written assignments from any freelancers or photographers it hired, and written moral rights waivers from everyone who worked on the site, in favour of your business and anyone it authorises.
- Third-party parts such as the platform, themes, plugins, fonts and stock images are listed, with who holds each licence, whether it continues after the agency leaves, and whether the site can be exported and in what form.
- On termination, the agency keeps the site live for a set handover period and, within a set number of days, hands over the code or a full export, the database, media files, the DNS records, and admin access to your email, Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager and ad accounts. Customer data from forms is handed over, and the agency deletes its copies.
- The agency's own reusable tools, the starter code and components it uses for every client, come with a permanent licence for you to use, change and hand to a new developer as part of your site.
- The notice period and any exit fee are written in dollars.
A line letting the agency show the work in its portfolio is normal and harmless. If an agency won't put clauses 2 and 3 in writing, think hard before you sign, because that decides who owns your website when you leave. You'll probably still be able to use the site you paid for, but how far you can take it with you will be argued about later, which is the worst time to find out.
If I paid for my website, do I own it?
Not automatically. Section 13(1) of the Copyright Act says the author of a work is the first owner of its copyright. When a freelancer writes your site's code and copy, the freelancer is the author and first owner. When an agency does it, the people who wrote it are the authors, and the agency owns the copyright as their employer under section 13(3). If the agency hired outside freelancers, it owns their work only if they assigned it to the agency in writing.
Copyright moves to you only one way. Section 13(4) says "no assignment or grant is valid unless it is in writing signed by the owner". A paid invoice or a promise on the phone does not do it, and a casual email saying "it's yours" probably doesn't either. The same section allows an assignment to be partial, so read what yours covers: code only, or code, design files, copy and photos.
The Act's definitions in section 2 list computer programs as literary works and photographs as artistic works, so a site's code and its project photos are both covered.
Your own employees are the exception. Under section 13(3), work an employee makes in the course of their job belongs to the employer unless they agreed otherwise. That doesn't cover an agency, and usually doesn't cover a freelancer. For an individual, what counts is how the work was actually done, not what the contract calls them, so if someone works only for you, on your schedule and with your equipment, ask a lawyer rather than assume.
If there is no signed assignment, the copyright stays with the agency or freelancer. You can very likely keep using the site you paid for, because courts generally treat paid-for work as coming with an implied licence to use it for what it was made for. In one Federal Court case about a client's website software, the court found an implied licence to modify the software. Whether that lets you move it, change it or hand it to a new developer is less certain, and that is the point to ask a lawyer.
If your agency used AI tools to write copy or make images, ask which parts. Canadian law hasn't settled whether purely AI-generated material has an author, so an assignment may not cover it, and the AI tool's own terms decide what rights you get.
Do I own the photos of my own projects?
Only if you took them, your staff did, or the photographer assigned them to you in writing. Until 7 November 2012, the person who ordered and paid for a photo was usually its first owner, unless they agreed otherwise. That rule, section 13(2), was repealed by the Copyright Modernization Act, and the repeal came into force that day. For a photo taken since, the photographer owns it even when you paid for the shoot. For photos taken before then the old rule may still apply, so if they matter to you, ask a lawyer.
The Act keeps a narrow defence in section 32.2(1)(f) for an individual using photos commissioned for personal, non-commercial purposes. Photos of your finished kitchens on a business website are commercial use, so it doesn't help.
This matters most for builders and renovators, because project photos are usually the most valuable thing on the site. If an agency arranged the photographer, ask who holds the copyright and whether you have a licence to keep using the photos after you leave. Stock photos, fonts and premium plugins come with their own licences, which usually belong to whoever bought them and often can't be transferred. If the agency bought them, ask whether the licence names your business and whether it continues when you leave.
What are moral rights, and why does the contract need a waiver?
Moral rights belong to the individual people who made the work: the developer, the designer, the writer, the photographer. They cover the right to be named, or to stay anonymous, where that's reasonable, and the right to protect the work's integrity. Section 14.1 of the Copyright Act says they can't be assigned, only waived, and that an assignment of copyright "does not by that act alone constitute a waiver of any moral rights." Only those people can waive them, which is why clause 3 asks the agency to collect the waivers. Under section 14.1(4), a waiver in favour of the owner can be relied on by anyone the owner authorises, unless it says otherwise, which covers your next developer.
The question that comes up most is credit: whether a new developer can take the old agency's name out of your footer, or whether a photographer has to be credited, and a waiver settles both. The integrity right is narrower. Under section 28.2, it is infringed only when the work is distorted, mutilated or modified to the prejudice of the author's honour or reputation, or used in association with a product, service, cause or institution in that way.
Who holds my .ca domain, and how do I check?
The Registrant named in CIRA's registry holds it. CIRA's Registrant Agreement defines the Registrant as the organisation in the Registrant Organization field, or the person in the Registrant Name field for an individual (section 1.2). The agreement also says a domain name "is not property" (section 3.2), although courts have sometimes treated domain names as property for other purposes. What matters day to day is whose name is on the record, and whose email.
If your agency registered the domain in its own name, the agency is the Registrant. If it registered the domain in your business's name, your business is the Registrant, and section 9.3 makes your business bound by the agreement, including for mistakes the agency makes on its behalf. That is one more reason to have your own login.
To check yours:
- If the domain is registered to a business, look it up on CIRA's WHOIS. Organisations' details are shown.
- If it is registered to you personally, CIRA's WHOIS won't show the name, because individuals' details are kept private. Log in to the registrar instead, or ask your agency which registrar it uses and for a screenshot of the registrant record.
- WHOIS shows the registrar of record even when it hides the name. If that isn't a company you have an account with, your agency is probably a reseller, and you'll need to go through it or that registrar.
- Check the email address on the registrant and administrative contacts and on the registrar login. Transfer codes and renewal warnings go there, so if it's an agency address, change it to one your business controls.
- Check the expiry date and whose card pays the renewal. A domain that lapses on an old agency's card is the most common way a small business loses one.
- Make sure your business has its own login at the registrar.
Only eligible holders, such as Canadian citizens, permanent residents ordinarily resident in Canada and Canadian corporations, can hold a .ca, under CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements.
How do I move a .ca or a .com away from my agency?
There are two different moves, and people mix them up.
Changing the Registrant puts the domain in your name. Under CIRA's General Registration Rules (sections 8.2 and 8.3), only the current Registrant can start it, by asking its registrar to submit the update to CIRA. If the agency is the Registrant, it has to start the handover, and the new Registrant has to meet the presence requirements. If the agency refuses, or has closed, CIRA won't decide the dispute for you. Ask the registrar what it needs to make the change, and if that doesn't work, a lawyer's letter or a court order is the usual route.
Changing the registrar moves the domain to a company you choose. You ask the current registrar for an authorization code, and the rules (section 6.1) say it must give it to you within five calendar days. The move adds a year to the registration, up to ten years. Under section 3.6 of the Registrant Agreement, you can't change registrar within 60 days of registering the domain, and the rules (section 6.2) add the same wait after a previous registrar transfer.
A .com works in a similar way. ICANN's registrant FAQ says you need an Auth-Code from your registrar, which it must provide within five calendar days, and that a registrar may refuse a transfer within 60 days of the first registration or the last transfer. One difference matters: for a .com, changing the registrant's name, organisation or email can lock the domain at its current registrar for 60 days, unless the agency opts out when the registrar offers it. So for a .com, ask for that opt-out, or have the agency move the domain into a registrar account your business owns and update the registrant there. ICANN's board approved changes to these transfer rules in June 2026 without an effective date, so check the version in force before you start.
Before anything moves, export the full DNS zone, including the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, or your email can stop working on the day of the switch.
Who controls my email, Business Profile and Search Console?
These sit outside the website, and losing one can hurt more than losing the site.
Business email. If your email runs on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, find out who is the super administrator on the account. Agencies often set it up under their own admin login. Ask for your business to be made the super administrator.
Google Business Profile. Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership, and only to someone who is already an owner or manager on the profile. Ask your agency to add you as an owner now, while things are friendly. After a transfer, the new primary owner waits 7 days before they can manage everything. If the agency won't transfer it or can't be reached, Google has a process for requesting ownership of a profile.
Search Console. A verified owner proved ownership with a token, while a delegated owner was added by someone else. Google warns that if you remove an owner but don't delete their verification tokens, they can re-verify and get back in. When an agency leaves, first verify yourself as an owner (a DNS record is the sturdiest way), then remove the agency and delete its tokens: the DNS record, the HTML file or tag on your site, or the Analytics or Tag Manager link it used.
Google Analytics. Make sure the Analytics property sits in an Analytics account your business owns, with your own Google account as Administrator. If it's inside the agency's account, ask them to move it to yours.
Does Ontario consumer law protect me if the contract is bad?
Probably not. Ontario's business guide to the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 defines a consumer as an individual acting for personal, family or household purposes, not for business. A builder hiring a web agency is buying for the business, so the contract you sign is most of your protection.
What do contractor-marketing platforms say about ownership?
On their own pages on 1 November 2026, Footbridge Media answered "Does Footbridge Media own my website if I cancel?" with "Nope.", Hook Agency said "You own your website 100%", and Scorpion said you own your website after the length of your contract is complete. The contract decides, so ask each for the clauses above. Our post on contractor marketing prices, contracts and who owns the site compares more firms, and the questions to ask a web designer before hiring covers the rest of the conversation.
What do Space and Story's own terms say?
You own the site we build for you: the code, the content and the domain. Plans are month to month, as our pricing page says. When you want to move the site, give us 30 days' notice and we hand it over. Sometimes we register a domain on a client's behalf, and when we do, it's handed over on the same 30 days' notice. If you'd rather the domain sit in your business's name from day one, as point 1 above suggests, ask us before we register it. That's our sales pitch too, so ask for the contract before you pay and check it against the seven points above.
How we checked: statute pages read on laws-lois.justice.gc.ca (current to 19 October 2026), CIRA's Registrant Agreement version 2.3 and General Registration Rules, ICANN's and Google's help pages, all on 8 November 2026. Platform quotes from 1 November 2026.