Website Copyright Infringement

[MLHmptn]

I have an odd situation I'm going through at the moment and am hoping someone can give me some light as to what to do. I built a website for a company I was working for and they agreed to pay me 1/3rd of the profits from the website. Well needless to say I caught them redhanded not paying me for countless orders that we received as per our agreement. My question is this...If I was the one that built the web pages and they didn't build anything and they breeched the contract that we agreed to, would the web pages that I built for them be there property or mine? I built over 3000 pages on this web site and about 1 week ago I deleted every page I built for them since they didn't pay me as per the agreement. In the mean time I started my own company and used the pages that I built only changing logo's and page titles. I also created about 400 new pages on my new website that they never had and I have found they are copying my content now and putting it on their own website even though they didn't build any of it. Should I consult a lawyer or am I more or less screwed since I uploaded the original html files to there servers and its on www.archive.org? For some reason they think they own the pages even though they never paid me a dime for a single page I built. My thoughts are since I have every single image and html page on my computer dating back to year 2000 that they would indeed be screwed if I took it to court since they have not one single file that they ever constructed. And since they breeched the contract they do not own my work. Any replies would be helpful! :>~

Thanks in advance,

MLHmptn

[Marcia]

They may think it's theirs, but obviously you didn't specifically turn the copyright over to them so it's a question of copyright and finances. Was there any type of contract?

You could write them telling about the copyright issue and what the law says - see what they say. I'd take the site down altogether so they couldn't grab more and call an attorney ASAP.

[MLHmptn]

Thank you Marcia for your speedy reply! I didn't think I was wrong in my thought process and no I did not ever turn over the copyright to them. I will contact a lawyer within the coming days but in the meantime I am going to protect all my pages with HTML protector for now. I just don't know what they think they are doing using my content in the first place and thinking they own the pages that I took over 4 years to build. Greed I tell ya! :> But to any extent my web page authoring goes on! :>

Thanks again Marcia!

MLHmptn

[mgream]

You need to see a lawyer as this is a contractual dispute and sounds very messy.

They contracted you to produce a work, and as they are the commissioner of the work, and own the copyright: this is what the copyright law states as a "work for hire", and you "built it for a company you were working for".

They failed to pay you, which means that they are in breach of contract. Unless there is a clause that states what happens in this case, it is unknown territory and you sort it out by negotiation. There is no general common law rule to work in this situation, but you can refuse further performance of contract, but I'm not sure if you can retract the content. The analogy is delivering a good to a company that fails to pay you: they are in the wrong, but I'm not sure that you can walk into the company's loading back and just seize your goods back. This could be considered tresspass and theft - ownership of the goods is in dispute.

You say that you started your own company and have been reusing the content? Are you allowed to do this, given that as per the contractual agreement, they actually own the copyright?

I'm not sure that you should have deleted the content though, this could actually be bad for you, because if this caused them trade loss, they may be able file a suit against you and seek damages (again, this depends on the nature of the contractual agreement). The fact that they are in breach of contract for having failed to pay you doesn't automatically give you the right to seize your goods back. In the same way, it doesn't seem to give them the right to take your new content for their site, so they are also acting in bad faith.

It seems messy and numerous issues to unroll and sort out. I don't envy you.