I'm fairly sure I know the answer to this, but I'm posting in case I'm wrong.
I built a website for a couple of old men with no real skills in websites. they're selling watches imported from the eu ( mostly italy) in the uk. someone shout up if you think they are avoiding customs tax, cos i do and i fully intend to shop them once the small claims court is over.
the site was 95% done, 3 months work plus, they decided they didnt want it anymore. so i took them to small claims court.
since then i've left the site where it was on my dev server. i received 1/3 payment for the design, but nothing since.
am i right in saying that until they pay me for my work, the intellectual property remains mine and they can't ask me to take it down?
I want to leave the dev site up for the day we make it to small claims court, so that i have something to show the judge, if required.
Eu countries = no duty. Watches are also vat exempt afaik.
As for the website, i guess its down to the contract between you.
Now either pay you as you develop the site - which imo would mean they own what you develop up to that point.
Or they pay you once the site is completed (not 95%) and they are happy with the work.
If there is no written contract, then you may have problems claiming the money, unless you can prove they use/have used the site you created.
Either they own the website & can ask you to take it down (then you may have a claim for unpaid work) or you dont take it down & claim the site is your work - but be weary of any copyrights they mave have, etc.
You be better off asking at a legal/lawyer forum imo
I think unless they gave you the design, their logo, etc and asked you to build it, the intellectual property is yours. A website is essentially a commodity like any other, so if someone commisions you to both design and produce a sign for instance but doesn't have a logo, etc and then they don't want that sign 80% into development, they don't have any rights to the work i'm pretty sure and can't tell you what to do with it. You could offer it to someone else for instance so the work does not become waste material.
You would probably be best checking the specifics with a solicitor though.
why don't they want the website any more ?
imo they'll go to small claims court and slag you and your work off, and say they don't want it because it's not what they asked for, or you're not doing it right etc. etc. and you'll be screwed
also, the website is yours to do with as you please BUT... if there's any way to identify them from it (company name, address, etc. etc.) then you'll have to remove that stuff, or you're essentially impersonating them
all depends on what they say in court tbh, and what you can prove
Quote from: knighty on March 14, 2013, 23:11:14 PM
imo they'll go to small claims court and slag you and your work off, and say they don't want it because it's not what they asked for, or you're not doing it right etc. etc. and you'll be screwed
This is a good point actually as it can happen all too easily that way, the company I worked for lost a case in this way at court. Unless you have clear and documented evidence that they were very satisfied the whole way through right up until the point of suddenly pulling the plug you need to be aware that you've no guarantee of winning just because you've done the work.
I don't know about websites but I'm involved in writing software... a spec is agreed with the client and signed off before work is done... the spec usually contains client test cases too etc.. if we deliver something and the client believes its causing an issue/not working as expected we can refer back to the spec... if it is something we've overlooked (rare) then we get it done pretty quickly and sent to them... if its something that causes their existing software from us to break in some way(does happen from time to time).. we'll fix that very very quickly... however if its something that isn't in the spec/outside the scope of the spec they start having to pay (or potentially get told that we don't want to support that functionality)... billing starts at 2k a day per analyst or developer... if you've got a few people on the project the costs start to add up for the client very quickly.... ad-hoc enhancements that essentially comprise of some additions to a few GUI screens and a few changes to the underlying business logic start costing six figure sums when you're dealing with enterprise systems....
I'm sure that can apply to a website too in at least some way... I guess elements like the design (if you're coming up with logos) are going to be subjective - though I'd assume you'd get the design sorted first and presumably get them to agree on it before building the thing?
Do you have a both a written contract and some sort of spec signed off? 'They decided the didn't want it anymore' could quite easily turn into 'they didn't like what you'd come up with and didn't feel it met their requirements'... I'd be slightly worried that the county court/small claims court might decide its not a simple dispute and requires a higher court to decide. (I presume the amount of money isn't worth taking it that far over if that were the case)... You should probably check on a legal forum as has been suggested... I mean I'd have assumed that if you've got something from them constituting a contract and some agreement that you will build X by Y date in return for Z fee and you've built X as per the agreement then you'd likely have a decent claim... if there is, however, some dispute over what constitutes X... some ambiguity over what you were supposed to deliver them by Y date then perhaps it could get more complicated....
there is a brief, theres not a lot to it, but essentially we were talking about a redeisgn of the current site. they agreed on the design and paid 1/3 costs in acceptance of it. i built the design, then they started taking the mick.
im fully aware that i won't get all of the money they owe me, but i think that i can demonstrate in court that they wanted the site, were happy with progression and decided last minute to walk away for no good reason.
good point on the use of their logo though. will amend tonight.
I doubt that you will be able to get the rest of the money from them, but the intellectual property is yours on the bits you designed. Even if they were to pay you fully you would still retain copyright on the design unless you agreed otherwise. Many companies have standard designs and repeatedly modify them to suit the customer. Anything you didn't create you don't own, so logos, text or graphics they provided is still theirs.