Asked recently on Yahoo! Answers:
To those of you who design websites, is this ethical?
I think my web designer may own the rights to my website. She’s got her company name at the bottom of all my pages, and made a comment once about me being stuck with her. Is that ethical? Is that common? What kind of a practice is that to hold the copyright to a customers web site?
Let’s deal with the legal question first: Absent an agreement that copyright will be transferred at the end of a job, a Web site’s developer owns a Web site developed under contract for someone else. That’s the law.
Which is, of course, why you always want to have written contracts that transfer ownership of others’ work for hire to you. And you shouldn’t use legal documents you find on the Web, either; laws vary from state to state, and you don’t want your contracts voided because you were too lazy to have them vetted by an attorney.
You should hire a competent business attorney admitted to the bar for your state / jurisdiction and pay him to draft your agreements. Or you should expect to find yourself in a jam like the one this questioner faces.
The good news for this person is twofold, however: She can always go someplace else and start a new site. But better yet, she’s really in control of the situation, because she has the one thing this contractor doesn’t have: The ability to keep her mouth shut.
Last things first, shall we?
Turn The Tables On Her
I’ve previously ranted against the “Customer As Hostage” view a lot of bad businesspeople tend to hold. (And you’ve seen how they react when you try to point out to them their approach is dumb).
The greatest power you have over such business people are your own strong business skills — namely, the same things that make you successful: your social network, drive / attitude and skills. By speaking up about the bad business practices of others, you leverage tremendous power over them, especially if you are generally regarded as a good business person.
The fix to this questioner’s problem, therefore, is simple: Inform the Web contractor with the misguided sense of copyright, in writing, that you are going to use a different Web professional, and insist that the person turn over the domain name for the site to your control.
Then, pay someone else to make an entirely new site, and chalk the cost up as a reminder that good contracts make for good business relationships.
If the contractor balks, make it very clear — again, in writing — that you are going to hire someone else to make a new site, regardless; and if the domain name doesn’t get turned over to your control, you’ll be more than happy to make your disagreement with the contractor and her policies very public.
If she refuses to surrender your domain name, follow through with a vengeance. Go 100 percent public.
If you have a store, print up a one-page flyer explaining the facts of your dispute and put them on your front counter. Attach copies of your correspondence to them.
Take out newspaper ads explaining the situation and your dismay. Buy cable TV and radio ads.
Hand out your flyer at the local Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions club meetings. Wherever you see her trying to network or make sales, make sure you are there, too, handing out your flyer.
Create a Web site detailing the situation. Google her business name and leave comments wherever possible detailing your situation and how disappointed you are. Complain to the Better Business Bureau, even if she isn’t a member.
The louder you can make your complaints, the more it hurts her business, provided your facts are true and you remain calm while criticizing her business. Don’t yell; don’t call her names; don’t attempt any sort of sabotage. Simply state loudly, and to anyone who will listen, the facts and how disappointed you are with her attitude. The more reasonable you are in your statements, the less reasonable she looks.
Believe me, it won’t take much of that until one of two things happen: She’ll sue, or she’ll give you what you want.
It isn’t libel to say you don’t like someone’s business practices. It isn’t libel to state facts. If you state the facts and offer that you think the contractor is a bad businessperson who swindled you, that’s not actionable.
Throughout the process, only communicate with the contractor in writing and make it known that if she surrenders your domain name, you will cease your activities.
Trust me, unless the contractor is the most vindictive and short-sighted person on Earth, it won’t go far; she will figure out that you are far more willing to do far more damage to her business than any value she would ever get out of you against your will.
Copyright Works Two Ways
Even if your contractor maintains copyright, that doesn’t give her right to operate a Web site for you, or your business, against your wishes. You can command her to shut down the site immediately and she must comply.
The same copyright that prevents you from taking the Web site she made prevents her from using your business name, likeness, etc. against your will. She may own the pages, but you own the business, and she has no right to appropriate your business name for any purpose if she hasn’t been granted that right.
In other words, her work may well be hers, but the site represents your business, and absent a contract to the contrary, she has no right to use your business in her Web site.
An obvious fix, therefore, is to order her to take the site down immediately and to refuse to pay her any more money. If you are under contract to pay her money, pay the money through the end of the contract and order her to remove the site.
Copyright Isn’t A Patent
Notice, in the above, I am only advocating for being a pain in the contractor’s ass if the contractor has control of the domain name for your business and does not want to reliquish it.
And the only reason I advocate being a pain in the ass in that circumstance is that experience has shown me, if you are not the registrant for a domain name, but have legal right to the domain as a trademark, trade name or the like, it is a very arduous and long process to wrest control via official channels; it’s far easier and quicker to badger someone who knows they are going to lose into complying with your wishes. (Witness all the ambulance chasers that advertise during daytime TV; it’s the same idea.)
If you own the domain name, or have control over it already, the fix is simple: Since you have no copyright over your current Web site, it’s time to make a new one.
The balancing act here comes in what would consitute a “new” site. To be safe, I would start from scratch: A completely different design using entirely new colors; an all-new logo.
Other than elemental facts — the name of the business, its address and phone number, hours of operation and the like — I would create all-new copy. I would take or purchase all-new images.
I would give serious consideration to completely changing the number of pages in the site and ensuring it does not have a similar page flow as the previous site. The object would be to create an all-new site that shares few to no similarities to the old site, so that copyright claims from the first contractor could be quashed.
And, of course, I would have a written contract, vetted by my lawyer, ensuring the work was mine upon its completion.
Then, I would conduct a more silent campaign against the other contractor; namely, tell anyone you know who is looking for a Web site to steer clear of her.
Trust me, operators such as this don’t last long. And when they go out of business, they have to find a job someplace else. The less people think of her, the more likely she winds up behind the counter at McDonald’s, where she probably belongs.
Your reasonable objections to her behavior do the general business community a service. Be fair, be accurate, be honest, but be firm and constant.
