some guy wants to contact police because of me!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2006
Posts
18,119
Location
Surrey
(sos mods for posting 2 places, the other place was getting slow replies, delete old thread if needed)

bascially i made a website for someone a few months ago, it cost him a total of £20 as i was still trying to build folio.

A while ago I remade the site, making slight changes to it, and added adsense to it, and then hosted it on my own host.

He realised today what i have done and has bascially said he is going to contact police and sollicitor because of fraud, text is copyright to his name along with the design blah blah blah. I basiaclly replied back with go ahead but in more words as im pretty sure im safe.

Wondering though what can be done by him? after all isn't the design mine and he hasn't done anything to copy right the text?
 
The design and site belongs to him. He bought it all off you, no?

Put it this way, a man in a factory assembles a car. When the car is sold, it belongs the the person who bought it, not the person who made it.
 
iCraig said:
The design and site belongs to him. He bought it all off you, no?
Click to expand...

nope, he paid for me to make a site and add text. as no contract was made can't i state that i thought i owned the design which i do, and the text?

iCraig said:
Put it this way, a man in a factory assembles a car. When the car is sold, it belongs the the person who bought it, not the person who made it.
Click to expand...

yeah but he owns the car, not the design of the car, so the car place makes loads of cars and sells each one
 
unless he's got a contract that specifies who owns what, the OP could state that he paid for his time and everything made by him remains his intellectual property.

Your car example is true iCraig but the person who invented the car still retains the rights to the design. The person who bought it can't just go off and make more of them exactly the same.

Bet he hasn't got a contract.
 
Mammalian said:
nope, he paid for me to make a site and add text. as no contract was made can't i state that i thought i owned the design which i do, and the text?
Click to expand...

When you pay for a website, you're effectively paying for the design and the site itself.

Otherwise what stops you from selling his site again to somebody else?

What do you mean he didn't go about copyrighting his text? A copyright notice isn't obligatory on a website, if he doesn't have one, it doesn't mean the site and it's content isn't copyright.
 
Oh for god sake, this guy's obviously a keyboard warrior. Just give him the files you've got, delete them from your host and computer and totally ignore any further communication he has with you.
 
A website is a bespoke service though, not a product.

If you sold him a template site that he agreed to, fair enough, but if it was a site design for him then no, I believe he owns the design. However he cannot claim to be the original creator.
 
I can't see the police getting involved as it doesn't seem to be a criminal matter. It would be a bit of a grey area who owns the copyright if you were the orginator unless you signed over the rights as part of the deal I would have thought.

Certainly it's part of my contract at work (and whilst at uni) that any of my designs and work was the explicit property of theirs.

Jokester
 
I think I'm right in saying copyright isn't a criminal matter, unless you distribute it onwards. so he could only sue you?

then unless you signed over the rights to him, in the contract, you would still own the IP rights.
 
If there was no contract then he got no copyright. Simple as that i would think.

You own the copyright to your own work and only give that up when you sell the rights, which you did not do in this case. Unless he has a contract stating that he HAS bought the rights then i very much doubt there is much he can do.

So what exactly have you done to annoy him? your post is a little vague. What does he have to be annoyed about?
 
iCraig said:
When you pay for a website, you're effectively paying for the design and the site itself.

Otherwise what stops you from selling his site again to somebody else?

What do you mean he didn't go about copyrighting his text? A copyright notice isn't obligatory on a website, if he doesn't have one, it doesn't mean the site and it's content isn't copyright.
Click to expand...

I've just been through exactly the same thing in my old company.
Several solicitors told our CEO and board that as we didn't specify that we were paying for the particular design and content, all we had paid for was the time taken to design it and 'a website'. Not determining any of the content whatsoever. I can't see why this is any different. AFAIK It comes down to what was agreed between the contractor and the person paying for the service.

NB: This was done before I started my contract there. I am not a numpty who agrees to let webbies create stuff and then walk away with it!
 
Same at my work, when we create a client a website and they pay X amount for it. They own rights to that design. They can publish the design wherever they like etc, and we have no right to use that design again for ourselves, e.g. a similar client later on down the road.

I guess it does depend on a contract, but I think it's basic design service etiquette.
 
iCraig said:
Same at my work, when we create a client a website and they pay X amount for it. They own rights to that design. They can publish the design wherever they like etc, and we have no right to use that design again for ourselves, e.g. a similar client later on down the road.

I guess it does depend on a contract, but I think it's basic design service etiquette.
Click to expand...

Etiquette maybe but not implied. Unless the contract of sale states it then the copyright remains with the creator.

I would think this bloke would have a hard time proving that he infact owns anything to do with the design as it appears that there probably was NO contract at all.

To the OP... ask yourself one question. Did you at any point imply that he would be purchasing anything other than your time... do you have a terms of sale or did you give him a reciept?
 
Last edited:
Mammalian said:
nope, he paid for me to make a site and add text. as no contract was made can't i state that i thought i owned the design which i do, and the text?
Click to expand...

Contracts can be implied, you do not have to agree on something (it can 'go without saying'). Contract law is flexible, not everything has to be written and explicit.

Surely it goes without saying that he would be buying all intellectual rights from you, including the design (unless you explicitly agreed otherwise)?
 
AtreuS said:
If there was no contract then he got no copyright. Simple as that i would think.

You own the copyright to your own work and only give that up when you sell the rights, which you did not do in this case. Unless he has a contract stating that he HAS bought the rights then i very much doubt there is much he can do.
Click to expand...

good to hear, stop my worrying now

AtreuS said:
So what exactly have you done to annoy him? your post is a little vague. What does he have to be annoyed about?
Click to expand...

i don't see how i could explain it any better. I remade the site, e.g. different colour scheme, reworded text, and added adsense. he found it and got annoyed as at first he thought it was his website address but then realised it wasn't. I told him i give away the templates i design freely to anyone but also as someone can easily copy html and css i can't stop people from copying the site.

Vibez said:
Why would he pay you as you put it to "make a site" for yourself, for you to own and make adsense revenue off ?
Click to expand...

i dont know why he would do that but he did, not my problem
 
I never "sell" my websites. I provide them with a contract of use. They definitely dont get the rights to the code or visual design as such but the use of it indefinitely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom