hey guys, just wanted to hear your thoughts and opinions on this issue.

I am planning on getting a third party web design firm to develope a few content and video streaming sites for me. I plan to make money mainly off advertising on these sites. I would mainly provide content for the sites, while the firm would take care of the technical aspects. My question is, if i got a third party to build / run a site for me than who holds the copyrights and ownership of the site?

I'm assuming that i would hold ownership, but what if the person building / maintaining the site decides to steal my ideas / work? What could i do to stop something like this from hapening.

Thank You

There are contracts set up for this. I believe I came accross some a few months ago that were free on the web.

In most jurisdictions, you do. You supplied the content, you commissioned the project, so intellectual property rights are usually yours. I won't say all jurisdictions because there are apparently some where intellectual property is the designer's until payment.

The best advice I can give to you is to consult a lawyer or study up on intellectual property (IP) law for your jurisdiction.