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Ex-Web Master Being Threatened/Harrassed

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M

mirrorlady

Guest
From California: I am an amateur web designer who designed a web site for some friends approx. 1 year ago. They paid me $300 for the site and extras I did for them. There was no written agreement; the verbal agreement was: They would place a link to my design site on each of their pages and upload changes as they occurred. In exchange, they would allowed me to link to their site from mine (as part of my "portfolio"). For about a year they were happy with the results. Then we had a huge falling out. They secured another web master who changed all the original file names (which meant the spiders could no longer find them, and they were dropped from most engines). However, results of a search still pointed people to my graphics site.

I no longer wanted to bring them any business, so I removed the actual link to their site and "cloned" their site, uploading it to my own domain. I blurred their pics and changed important numbers (phones, licenses, etc.). It was some of my best work and I wanted to keep it on my domain to show my specific talents. I made sure their site could not be found by viewing my "cloned" site.

They are ignorant about web sites and how search engines work. They accused me of maliciously forcing the engines to point to my site rather than theirs. They said that blurring their photos defaced his wife and defamed the character of him and his business.

She asked me to change my clone's META TAGS; I did. She asked me to change all acronyms on my clone which made it sound like an architectural site, which I began to do (lots of work). However, 48 hours later, they secured an attorney and threatened to sue.

They said I must remove the cloned site. I did. Then they demanded I put "redirects" on the error pages that the engines pointed people to (which are on MY domain). I reminded them that their new web master had screwed up their engine listing when he changed the html file names and that I had done nothing wrong and was tired of working on a solution which benefitted them and not me. I demanded a fee to redirect to their site from mine. I explained that they would have to pay for the bandwidth and advertising fees. They continued to harrass and threaten me that I should fix everything,NOW.

As of now, the engines point to my site, stating "404 Error, this page does not exist". The URL shows:
mysite.net/design/thisguysname, which is the original way I organized it a year ago when they were enjoying the hits my site was bringing them.

They are demanding I delete thisguysname the "404 error" page URL on MY domain which the engines point to! I don't see as I have any control over that. Worse, some engines also add: "This page doesn't exist. Go to: (a link appears to my index page - which is about sexual abuse!) for more information". Now they think I'm making his potential customers see him as linked with sexual abuse.

They also demand I never again make a web site for an architect so that they will never have the risk of being associated with my site again!

They are litigation-happy people but I can't think of a thing I did wrong, and they knew all along I did not have a "business"; I am self taught and am amateur with no written agreement.

After reading the US Copyright rules I've decided to copyright the "clone" and keep it on my domain. Does anyone see a problem with this?

Thanks for any help/advice you can give, I am losing sleep at night.

Marcie Crawley
 
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Can't speak directly...

...to the legal aspects of what you're doing, but must say I admire your courage. This seems to be a rather grey area actually, and I think they are trying to intimidate you as much as anything.

I endured a 22 month legal battle, a totally different area of the law by the way, and won! I attribute my winning to the same courage of conviction you display in your post.

You, above all, know if your motives are correct! If you feel you're in the right, go for it. If not back off. Get some advice from an attorney specializing in this area of the law too.

good luck

charlie
 
M

mirrorlady

Guest
Thank you Charlie

Charlie,

Thank you for your comments which were very positive (and I haven't had much of that lately!)

Marcie
 

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