BlkKnight

Hi All,

Just a quick question, looking for advise really.

I've my website has existed for about 10 years in various incarnations.

About 6 months ago, a "friend" took over the management of the site - including migrating from PHP Nuke to SMF & writing a custom signup script.

For this he was accepting a "payment in kind" (free entry to my events for the duration that he was maintaining the site).

Recently the server where he had moved the site to had disk failure & it transpires that no backups were being taken.

Long story short:
- I've moved the site onto a different host
- I've offered the friend to continue to manage the site - he declined.
- The site is now up & running on the new server "as was" all be it restored from a month old backup.

He is now claiming IP rights over the work that was done on the site whilst he managed it & would like me to remove it.

The way I see it is:
- I was paying him for the work he did (all be it in kind)
- No arrangements were discussed re the IP rights, and had the conversation ever taken place I would have refused to sign them over.

Any ideas where I stand on this?

boxst

It is ... interesting and should have been written down somewhere. If he didn't / doesn't have backups and there is no contract in place I would say it is difficult to distinguish which parts he did anyway.

If I design something then the contract says that the customer 'owns' the IP (i.e. they can move it to a different designer) but cannot sell it on as their own work (such as a template for another company to create a website).

Steve

BlkKnight

He has a copy of the 1 month old backup.

And yes, nothing was agreed verbally or in writing.

As it happens, I have no intention of reselling it or marking it as my own work.

boxst

If he designed a Logo for you then there is some possiblity of rights infringement by using his work.

For the website itself, he doesn't really have a case. Nothing written down, he was 'paid' for the work.

What does he actually want? Asking you to take down the website just seems petty, does he want free entry for another couple of months? If it is your friend it is obviously worth solving it amicably.

I'm sure you have, but you need to make sure that he doesn't have access to the new site as he sounds like someone who will wipe or alter the contents.

Steve

BlkKnight

The image was done by someone else.

It was purely the coding behind the site.

Yes I've secured the site.

BlkKnight

Steve,

would you mind sending me a copy of your contract?

jason at physicalcompany.co.uk

RichB

How much work are we talking about here?

A whole site or just a form and some bits and bobs?
He would retain copyright of the 'code' and in theory you could not resell it but it would be very hard to prove.

Seeing as you can't see the php/asp on the public side you could simply says it's been rewritten and just looks the same as it did, no way of proving that without direct access to the code.

RichB

Incidently, if someone writes code in their spare time whilst employed, their employer technically could own the IPR of that work unless specifically written down in the contract of employment. So in theory, you've been employing him and/or rewarding him therefore it's yours...

That said, I've been developing a site for a sailing club and if someone else takes that over then they wont be getting any of the code but then again, I've not been paid for it so it's mine lock, stock.