Someone else taking credit for a site I've done

[Marcia]

I am in a state of shock! There's a site that's just about done, it's live already. I've been paid a good part of it, and have to bill for a balance that's due for additions made after the original agreement.

I just found out that someone else is being given credit for being the creator and "webmaster" of the site, including the graphics. There's no denying it, it's right out in public. Of course, I did every stitch of it and have all the files on disk.

Yes, my copyight notice is on the site, on every page. You can just imagine what I feel like doing. :)

This is worse than thievery. Anyone have any input, wisdom or soothing words to calm the rage?

[JustTrying]

Incredible what lengths people will go to...

What I would do in that situation is contact my attorney, and ask him put together a "tough" letter outlining some of niceties of copyright law, and DMCA. The offender needs to get a firm idea that #1 you know what's going on, and #2 you are willing to see a resolution through.

Best of luck to you Marcia.

[Hunter]

Marcia,

Wow, that's sure not fair. First I would focus on the money that's due. Personally I would not say anything that might make them defensive until you are fully paid for all work. In the meantime I would screen capture all of YOUR work that they are miss-representing.
Once you have things documented and have at least tried to receive the balance due, then you can deal with any and all of their misdeeds.

[pageoneresults]

Okay, to break the ice a little bit, I know a place where we can submit their site to 808,500 search engines, directories and link lists every 24 hours for the next few months.

Lawyers fees can get quite expensive, especially when dealing with copyright issues.

[jdMorgan]

Marcia,

Add proper attribution of authorship to your contract agreement!
In cases like this, that pesky Alexa "WayBack Machine" can come in very handy...

Best of luck!
Jim

[crash]

"I know a place where we can submit their site to 808,500 search engines, directories and link lists every 24 hours for the next few months."

I got one that does 1,000,064 ;)

hmm - can't get him to give me a complete list tho.. only about 50 or 60

[idiotgirl]

Pretty much happened to me, too. About twenty or so times. From the same person. To make along story short - I got royally screwed. Once it becomes convoluted - everyone concerned loses. It doesn't matter who's "fault" it is or who-convoluted-who-first.

My contracts have been written in blood ever since. If "they" (client) doesn't like it or feels it's too restrictive - they can move on to someone else before we get started. I'm not going to put myself in that position again.

Unless you can kiss enough b*tts to get yourself out of this mess (if you can convince yourself that b*tt kissing is a worthwhile endeavor), my advice is to "get a rope" and hardline them with a law suit. If the Doris Day approach gets noplace, I take the Gotti approach.

[crash]

Marcia, I was in the same boat about a year ago - I bit my tongue - got paid and refused to do anything else for them. Unless you have something in writing there isn't much you can do.

[Mardi_Gras]

Marcia - The most important thing is to get paid your balance due :) In the meantime, if you have a good relationship with your cient (and it is not him/her taking credit!) you might mention your concerns to them.

After being paid in full, you may want to send a letter reminding them of your copyright.

Beyond that, your cost-effective options are limited. As pageoneresults said, legal fees can add up in a hurry. As frustrating as this issue may be, it is probably not worth incurring legal fees over.

[gsx]

Is this a link from another web design companies web site to your clients site?

[herb]

I’m not sure why you should care. The only question is; did you get paid. We consult to fortune 500 companies and all of the work is done on a “work for hire” bases. We turn over the source code at the end of the contract, it’s up to them to maintain it and if they want/need us to do any modifications we get paid for them. Usually the only exception to that rule is if our work is transactional based, i.e., our code shipped with each chip manufactured, in which case we retain the copyright.

I have never seen my Big Mac handed to me with other than the Mac Donald’s copyright on it. The fry cook gets paid but get no copyright notice. It’s work; you need to treat it as such.

We have turned down contracts for web site development when the developer insisted upon putting his copyright notice on the pages.

We have sites that use; SQL 2000, Dream Weaver, purchased graphics, NT 2000, hosted by XX, and put together by several of our employees. We show one copyright, ours.

[Shane]

Marcia,

Any idea of what I can do?

Well, for starters examine what is at the core of why you are so angry (theft of your artistic work, loss of income, loss of new leads, gaul at their gaul, .....)

This might point you to take action towards resolving that specific point (after you get paid :) )

Another suggestion, cool down and take action. I find I am more effective if I am not in the mood to strangle someone. ;)

Good Luck,
Shane

[Mark_A]

Marcia sorry to hear some unethical bstard is paying you attention ..

"Yes, my copyight notice is on the site, on every page. You can just imagine what I feel like doing."

I noticed that line.

On sites I develop for clients, it is their copyright notice on the sites. I typically hand over all copyright and IP on the site when payments are complete.

Incidentally at the same time I hand over any associated potential liabilities but retail the rights to publicly claim origination of the work as it was when I completed it.

That does not mean that I would not defend IP were the site to be abused or copied but I would do so in the clients or my interest and would have to think hard about which I was taking.

It would be interesting to know who is making this claim about your work, is it someone at the client or a third party?
Is it on the site you have built or a different site altogether.. ?

I would also focus on your client, are they happy with your work, are they paying your invoices, are they likely to give you more work in the future? That should establish a suitable way to treat them.

Then the offender .. There are a couple of ways to look at this..

One is that this person is an unethical IP / Copyright violator etc and you should spend time / money to get redress / removal ..

Another, (the one I prefer) is that they offer you an invaluable publicity opportunity :-)

In a case I heard of someone had a site design ripped off, they used law, or the threat of it, to force the offender to remove / recode their copy and obtained very positive press coverage of the case and their web development skills / business which I am sure resulted in increased repute and image.

Could you make a PR story about this which would increase your positive exposure ? I bet you could.

[WebRookie]

>>First I would focus on the money that's due. Personally I would not say anything that might make them defensive until you are fully paid for all work.

Good advice. Be sure to be paid in full first, then think up a game plan of sorts, gives you time to get a clear idea of what's next.

If your design is supposed to remain your copyright, then it stinks that someone did this to you.

If nothing else works to resolve the situation, add a webmaster resources articles section to your design company website and write an article about this type of poor web design practice. ;)

Hang in there...