----- Original Message -----
From: "Hank Marquardt" <hmarq(at)yerpso.net>
To: "Bob Laurence" <webguy(at)re-data.com>
Cc: <hwg-business(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: do we have to give up our programming to a competitor


> I'm sure you'll get a littany of "go see a lawyer" responses.  And alas,

You betcha.

> I AM NOT A LAWYER, with that out of the way let me say this --
>
> Unless you have some contract with the client stipulating that you are a
> service bureau providing an ongoing service to thier business, rather
> than having been a developer of their site, I'd say you did 'work for
> hire' -- in other words, it's not *your* code, it's thier code and
> you're holding it hostage; be prepared to lose in court.

Actually, it's usually the other way around.  Without a written agreement
(which is where you ask yourself *WHAT* were you thinking), the *creator* of
The Thing holds the copyright to The Thing immediately upon creation of The
Thing. Besides, you say you've filed for copyright.

Sorry, but you're not going to get out of it with an opinion from this
group.  Seek a competent *intellectual property* attorney in your
jurisdiction.  IMMEDIATELY.

Do not disrupt the site if it is working (there may be laws in your state
making *you* liable).  Do not divulge any sauce code, passwords,
infrastructure information, etc. unless such is spelled out in your
contract.  And *see your attorney*******.

Since all the things you describe should be included in a written agreement,
it's safe to assume you didn't have one, or that it was inadequate.  Many
people learn that the so-called savings of foregoing the attorney and doing
business on a handshake ends up costing far more than an initial
construction or review of appropriate contracts for your state or
jurisdiction.

Because even the most contractually protected code can migrate, compile your
server-side code whenever possible.  As the tagline on one of our own
products says, you never know where you code is going to end up.

Contracts and compilers are your friends ;)

Good luck.

KRansdell

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