Hi, have a small web design company in NY state. A past business colleague now living in L.A. called and asked if I could do her a favor and redesign a 20 page website for the company she is now working for. I had 3 days to do it. At first I declined because she called me Thursday night and my programmer does not work weekends. She begged me to do this for her and I eventually agreed. Staying up all night to finish the job in 3 days. I charged the company half the price of what anyone else would because I knew her personally and made many changes to the site to at their request after it was finished at no extra charge. They agreed to let me host the site for one year are all the help I gave them. There was never any written contract for any of this. 3 months later the company hired their own marketing/designer and said they no longer needed me to host their site as their new guy would be doing it. They further asked for all the source file for the site I designed for them. My policy is that no sources files (i.e. original flash files) are ever included with the product. This is stated clearly on my business website. Their guy should be able to recreate the files. They paid for the site, and insist I give them what they want or they will use their lawyer to sue me! Can they do that? Even tho I did not put it in writing to them, it states it on my website. Any advice??
BobK | Community Administrator |
2/20/2009 - 2:42 pm
I'm really sorry to hear about your troubles. Your question really gets into laws involving contracts which is outside the realm of government regulations and administrative law. An attorney is the most qualified person to answer your question.
I'm really sorry to hear about your troubles. Your question really gets into laws involving contracts which is outside the realm of government regulations and administrative law. An attorney is the most qualified person to answer your question.
I would also look into associations for artists. They sometimes have connections to lawfirms. In Washington DC there is a local chapter of lawyers that give pro-bono legal advice called Washington Area Lawyer for the Arts: http://www.thewala.org/
You may want to look in your area to see if such an entity exists. BEst of luck.
Hi there,
Your experience is not uncommon amongst small business owners. We always recommend that no matter who you do business with you should have a simple English contract between you and the other party to protect yourself and your hard work.
Many times it has nothing to do with money but just to prevent yourself from becoming the victim of litigation. In our experience with Business Planning and Financing for technology entrepreneurs we find that liability that your client has taken on may find its way onto you as well. Violation of somebody elses copyright is the most common infringement.
If you website states that your work product conduct then you should be ok but I would run it by your industry organization and also touch base with an attorney. Review the plenty resources that are provided on this excellent forum and also check out our website for industry association pertaining to software development.
Good luck.
BobK | Community Administrator | 2/20/2009 - 2:42 pm
CharlesS | Creator | 2/20/2009 - 3:41 pm
vlakhiani | Creator | 3/3/2009 - 8:39 pm
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