Re: Dilemma

Whether you can or cannot link to these sites depends upon 3 criteria, and,
unfortunately, you probably need to consult a lawyer in your state to get
accurate advice.
You will need to consider:
1) Contractual Restrictions that you may be bound by - either (i) in a
contract/partnership agreement with your former employer, or (ii) in
contracts between the former firm and clients whereby the former firm agreed
not to use or disclose its work/role on those sites (and, presumably, but
its not always the case, either the client had all persons working the
account agree to be bound by that or you have a contractual or state law
obligation to abide by that agreement).
2) State law - is there a state law restriction?  Each state is different,
but in most states, if the information is classifiable as a "trade secret"
or "proprietary/confidential information" you likely have a duty under law
to preserve it.  It the case of web site design, however, if the sites are
open and, if as is often the case, the site bears a "designed by xyz"
legend, the former firm will probably have a hard time establishing that
this is a trade secret.
3) Your resources to fight.  Even if you are correct, if your former firm
has extensive funds and you don't, can you afford to get tied up in
protracted litigation that consumes your time and money, even if it is
likely you will eventually prevail.

Your best bet is to consult an attorney in your state who does a lot of
employment law counseling, and follow his/her advice.  You can control your
cost if you first gather copies of all relevant agreements that you may have
signed.

----- Original Message -----
From: "N S" <classactdesign(at)yahoo.com>
To: <hwg-business(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 7:55 PM
Subject: Dilemma


Hello list,

Due to business and personal differences, I've decided
to leave the MIS firm I work for.

Since its lead designer is departing, this has angered
my partner. To backtrack a bit, I picked up the
company when it was almost dead and revived it through
my work. I don't have any type of agreement with the
company but we do have a contract with the clients and
there is nothing that specifies I can't link to them.

Anyway, my partner is threatening to sue me if I list,
display, and link from my portfolio to the sites I
have created.  I did it anyway and even gave a brief
description how they were done.

Is this ethical? Is this right? How much trouble can I
get into? What do you use in your personal portfolios?
Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I am trying not to feel guilty here. It is not my
intent to steal the clients. But designing sites is my
lifeblood and without a portfolio, I don't stand a
chance!

Thanks,
Nora S.
http://home.earthlink.net/~nas0719

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

HTML: hwg-business mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA