Legal question for the gfy lawyers regarding rogue designer/coder - GoFuckYourself.com

Jace · 03-25-2008, 05:16 AM

i am waiting on my own lawyers response, thought I would throw this out there for you all while I wait.

a non-profit group has a website, they grab a designer doing work coding and designing their site, he is doing it for free in exchange for that non-profit

he gets mad and decides they don't deserve his work anymore, takes 6-8 months of work and pulls it from the site and replaces it with the site that was up 8 months ago before he started working on it

he claims he owns the copyright to that work and if they try and use it again he will sue them

does he have the right?

munki · 03-25-2008, 05:48 AM

sticky icky... def wait for the real legal camp on this one.

Jace · 03-25-2008, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by munki

sticky icky... def wait for the real legal camp on this one.

it is definitely messy, I just like to hear if anyone else has encountered this issue

BVF · 03-25-2008, 05:53 AM

Legally I don't know since I'm not a lawyer but practically, that's some punk ass shit that he did right there....He should've just walked and done nothing more to support the project...

If I were the the company, I'd just use his code and wait for my court date

Jace · 03-25-2008, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BVF

Legally I don't know since I'm not a lawyer but practically, that's some punk ass shit that he did right there....He should've just walked and done nothing more to support the project...

If I were the the company, I'd just use his code and wait for my court date

man, tell me about it

this is a total non-profit, there became some rifts in the community over how something was handled, he became a baby because some people that were not a part of the community threatened and accused him of cheating the system, he pulled the site overnight and all his work (which was a LOT, including accounting and ticketing style data), and replaced it with the old system, which is almost a year old

sexuallyhealed · 03-25-2008, 06:25 AM

If no money changed hands or no contract was signed for the work he did showing it to be legally yours then theres nothing you can do. He owns his work he did.

You're just wasting your time and money on lawyers for something like this.

pornlaw · 03-25-2008, 08:36 AM

Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement.

By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license.

He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing.

candyflip · 03-25-2008, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornlaw

Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement.

By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license.

He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing.

Game. Set. Match.

datatank · 03-25-2008, 08:57 AM

Do you have back ups?

payd2purv · 03-25-2008, 09:05 AM

Wow! What a dick move on the designers part.

But i'm sure something on the part of the "non-profit" lead up to him doing this.

I'd like to hear the rest of the story heh...

webair · 03-25-2008, 09:06 AM

any paperwork on this? contracts?

spunkmister · 03-25-2008, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by payd2purv

Wow! What a dick move on the designers part.

But i'm sure something on the part of the "non-profit" lead up to him doing this.

I'd like to hear the rest of the story heh...

yeah its easy enough to call the designer an ass but Ive dealt with my fair share of non-profits who are more arrogant and harder to work with than profit businesses.

dick move or not, if he didn't get paid for his work, or a release was signed then I cant see any reason why he cant take his work off the site.

woj · 03-25-2008, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornlaw

Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement.

By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license.

He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing.

Nice to see some real lawyers hang out on here

DateDoc · 03-25-2008, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by payd2purv

Wow! What a dick move on the designers part.

But i'm sure something on the part of the "non-profit" lead up to him doing this.

I'd like to hear the rest of the story heh...

There is always three sides to the story. 6-8 months of work? Seems like he did a lot of work for free and probably wasn't treated too gratefully.

L-Pink · 03-25-2008, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornlaw

Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement.

By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license.

He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing.

thanks for the response

Jace · 03-25-2008, 12:45 PM

we just found out he is bipolar and is having a manic episode

everything was fine until someone accused him of altering the ticketing system code to benefit his friends and himself, then he flew off the handle, pulled his work and split, claiming fraud and scamming from the board of directors

Jace · 03-25-2008, 12:46 PM

and oh yeah, the person that accused him has nothing to do with the non-profit except for attending functions

candyflip · 03-25-2008, 01:19 PM

Why not pay the guy for his work? Just because it's a non-profit organization doesn't automatically allow them to get free work out of people.

I'm doing something for a local non-profit right now, and they're actually paying a premium and have no issues with it.

If they deem the guys work valuable enough to make use of it, he should be compensated.

Also, what does being Bi-Polar have anything to do with it?

IllTestYourGirls · 03-25-2008, 01:28 PM

what does the contract say?

tenderobject · 03-25-2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candyflip

Why not pay the guy for his work? Just because it's a non-profit organization doesn't automatically allow them to get free work out of people.

I'm doing something for a local non-profit right now, and they're actually paying a premium and have no issues with it.

If they deem the guys work valuable enough to make use of it, he should be compensated.

Also, what does being Bi-Polar have anything to do with it?

hey man can you hit me up on icq?

papill0n · 03-25-2008, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornlaw

Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement.

By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license.

He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing.

Bookmarked your site Michael

Good luck getting the mess sorted out Jace.

collegeboobies · 03-25-2008, 02:27 PM

Calling him out as bi-polar which has nothing to do with the biz relationship is NOT a good way to get the site design back.

pornlaw · 03-25-2008, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RageCash-Ben

Bookmarked your site Michael

Thanks - and we do have a work for hire/assignment of copyrights contract within the members area if you need one.

Barefootsies · 03-25-2008, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexuallyhealed

If no money changed hands or no contract was signed for the work he did showing it to be legally yours then theres nothing you can do. He owns his work he did.

You're just wasting your time and money on lawyers for something like this.

Cha-ching. You got da bling. This is spot on sire.

03-25-2008, 05:16 AM	#1
Jace FBOP Class Of 2013 Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: bumfuck, ky Posts: 35,562	Legal question for the gfy lawyers regarding rogue designer/coder i am waiting on my own lawyers response, thought I would throw this out there for you all while I wait. a non-profit group has a website, they grab a designer doing work coding and designing their site, he is doing it for free in exchange for that non-profit he gets mad and decides they don't deserve his work anymore, takes 6-8 months of work and pulls it from the site and replaces it with the site that was up 8 months ago before he started working on it he claims he owns the copyright to that work and if they try and use it again he will sue them does he have the right?

03-25-2008, 05:48 AM	#2
munki Do Fun Shit. Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: OC Posts: 13,393	sticky icky... def wait for the real legal camp on this one. __________________ “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” -Oscar Wilde

03-25-2008, 05:53 AM	#4
BVF Black Vagina Finder Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Midwest Posts: 13,975	Legally I don't know since I'm not a lawyer but practically, that's some punk ass shit that he did right there....He should've just walked and done nothing more to support the project... If I were the the company, I'd just use his code and wait for my court date __________________ Black Pussy Click On Mr Cosby..CCbill, 60/40, 136 FHG's....The Cos Loves Black Ghetto Pussy!!

03-25-2008, 08:36 AM	#7
pornlaw Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 1,877	Copyright can only be waived by way of a formal written assignment or work for hire agreement. By way of his agreement he gave them a non exclusive limited license, by way of him pulling the work he ended his license. He owns it. Always get pics/videos/graphics/code/programming ect. rights waived/assigned in writing. __________________ Michael www.AdultBizLaw.com

03-25-2008, 09:06 AM	#11
webair Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 8,531	any paperwork on this? contracts? __________________ ~ Webair Dedicated Cloud Servers™ ~ WEBAIR VSYS™ Virtual Hosting Platform ~ Superior CDN Network ~ ~ Managed Dedicated hosting Specialists ~ DISCOUNT DOMAIN NAMES! ~ WEBAIR FUSION IO MANAGED CLOUD SERVERS! ~ *ICQ:* 243116321 - *TWITTER* - @WEBAIRINC - E-Mail: [email protected]

03-25-2008, 06:25 AM	#6
sexuallyhealed So Fucking Banned Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 532	If no money changed hands or no contract was signed for the work he did showing it to be legally yours then theres nothing you can do. He owns his work he did. You're just wasting your time and money on lawyers for something like this.

03-25-2008, 08:57 AM	#9
datatank Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: My dog is blacker than Tupac Posts: 5,471	Do you have back ups?

03-25-2008, 09:05 AM	#10
payd2purv Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 2,727	Wow! What a dick move on the designers part. But i'm sure something on the part of the "non-profit" lead up to him doing this. I'd like to hear the rest of the story heh...

03-25-2008, 12:45 PM	#16
Jace FBOP Class Of 2013 Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: bumfuck, ky Posts: 35,562	we just found out he is bipolar and is having a manic episode everything was fine until someone accused him of altering the ticketing system code to benefit his friends and himself, then he flew off the handle, pulled his work and split, claiming fraud and scamming from the board of directors

03-25-2008, 12:46 PM	#17
Jace FBOP Class Of 2013 Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: bumfuck, ky Posts: 35,562	and oh yeah, the person that accused him has nothing to do with the non-profit except for attending functions

03-25-2008, 01:19 PM	#18
candyflip Carpe Visio Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: New York Posts: 43,064	Why not pay the guy for his work? Just because it's a non-profit organization doesn't automatically allow them to get free work out of people. I'm doing something for a local non-profit right now, and they're actually paying a premium and have no issues with it. If they deem the guys work valuable enough to make use of it, he should be compensated. Also, what does being Bi-Polar have anything to do with it? __________________ Spend you some brain. Email Me

03-25-2008, 01:28 PM	#19
IllTestYourGirls Ah My Balls Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Under the gold leaf ICQ 388-454-421 Posts: 14,311	what does the contract say? __________________

03-25-2008, 02:27 PM	#22
collegeboobies So Fucking Banned Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 3,644	Calling him out as bi-polar which has nothing to do with the biz relationship is NOT a good way to get the site design back.