C
Chelle69
Guest
What is the name of your state? Various jurisdiction (Canada/UK/California)
Hello and thanks in advance for any advice you can lend.
The situation is this. 2 years ago, 3 friends entered into a verbal partnership in a website. It's a computer tech/support site, completely non-profit and all expenses in running the site have been split 3 ways.
partner #1 - UK
partner #2 - UK
myself - Canada
Webhost - California
Recently due to various disputes, my one partner (partner #1) and I have decided to part ways with the 3rd partner. The 3rd partner in question actually bought the domain name from a previous owner for the amount I believe equivalent to $1,000 US. He had no idea how to run the website and had no real interest in doing so, and was happy to let my other partner and myself 'run' the site. I'm an experienced web developer and graphic artist, and my other partner is a professional programmer, so between the two of us we had the skills and experience to develop the site quite successfully over the last 2 years. We have an active community of approximately 1400 members. Partner #3 has not contributed anything in the content of the site during this time.
Due to an irreparable dispute, partner #1 and myself "resigned" from working with him. He has no use for the domain name, the existing community or any of the content, but would not step down and just sell/give the domain name to us to carry on. He feels that as owner of the domain name, he's entitled to the whole shooting match.
The facts are as follows;
- There is a Vbulletin license that is owned by partner #1
- All the code on the site was written by partner #1
- All the graphics and some of the code on the site was created by myself
- Most of the content by way of static files (disclaimer, rules of use, etc) was written by myself
- I am the the hosting company's 'client' and have sole right to the site files/databases (?)
After numerous negotiation attempts, it was clear that he was going to hold the domain name 'hostage' and either close the site down, or sell it to the highest bidder, but made it clear that partner #1 and myself would be the last people he would sell it to. He's since told us he has a buyer for the domain name, and he intends to sell the site in it's entirety, for a profit. (above the price of what he originally paid for the domain)
What we have done was this. We left him access to the only thing we feel he is entitled to, the domain name.
- we have purchased another domain name identical, except it's .org (rather than .com)
- we have parked the .org account on the .com account for the time being
- we have cut his server/FTP access to the site files
- we have restricted his Admin access in Vbulletin to prevent him from deleting or altering partner #1 or myself, or the forums themselves.
He is free to log into his registrar account and repoint the nameservers off our current server, and do what he likes with it. Our webhost feels he's under no obligation to turn the site files over to him as he's not the "client" and the owner of the domain name to them is insignificant.
Once he repoints his nameservers our .org will not work unless members type it in manually, but we know that and have advised our members accordingly.
He now claims his lawyer says he has legal right to everything on the site as partner #1 and I "resigned". They claim the loophole is in the disclaimer (which I wrote) that states all content is express property of the site. However, it does not state thesite.com or .org. Just the name. As we are now thesite.org, it can still apply, only to US.
What rights does he really have, and due to the fact there's jurisdictional issues here, would his lawyer even agree to try to fight this?
Can he claim we 'stole' the site content? As partner #1 and myself are the originators of the content, what rights do we have?
Thanks again for your time.
Hello and thanks in advance for any advice you can lend.
The situation is this. 2 years ago, 3 friends entered into a verbal partnership in a website. It's a computer tech/support site, completely non-profit and all expenses in running the site have been split 3 ways.
partner #1 - UK
partner #2 - UK
myself - Canada
Webhost - California
Recently due to various disputes, my one partner (partner #1) and I have decided to part ways with the 3rd partner. The 3rd partner in question actually bought the domain name from a previous owner for the amount I believe equivalent to $1,000 US. He had no idea how to run the website and had no real interest in doing so, and was happy to let my other partner and myself 'run' the site. I'm an experienced web developer and graphic artist, and my other partner is a professional programmer, so between the two of us we had the skills and experience to develop the site quite successfully over the last 2 years. We have an active community of approximately 1400 members. Partner #3 has not contributed anything in the content of the site during this time.
Due to an irreparable dispute, partner #1 and myself "resigned" from working with him. He has no use for the domain name, the existing community or any of the content, but would not step down and just sell/give the domain name to us to carry on. He feels that as owner of the domain name, he's entitled to the whole shooting match.
The facts are as follows;
- There is a Vbulletin license that is owned by partner #1
- All the code on the site was written by partner #1
- All the graphics and some of the code on the site was created by myself
- Most of the content by way of static files (disclaimer, rules of use, etc) was written by myself
- I am the the hosting company's 'client' and have sole right to the site files/databases (?)
After numerous negotiation attempts, it was clear that he was going to hold the domain name 'hostage' and either close the site down, or sell it to the highest bidder, but made it clear that partner #1 and myself would be the last people he would sell it to. He's since told us he has a buyer for the domain name, and he intends to sell the site in it's entirety, for a profit. (above the price of what he originally paid for the domain)
What we have done was this. We left him access to the only thing we feel he is entitled to, the domain name.
- we have purchased another domain name identical, except it's .org (rather than .com)
- we have parked the .org account on the .com account for the time being
- we have cut his server/FTP access to the site files
- we have restricted his Admin access in Vbulletin to prevent him from deleting or altering partner #1 or myself, or the forums themselves.
He is free to log into his registrar account and repoint the nameservers off our current server, and do what he likes with it. Our webhost feels he's under no obligation to turn the site files over to him as he's not the "client" and the owner of the domain name to them is insignificant.
Once he repoints his nameservers our .org will not work unless members type it in manually, but we know that and have advised our members accordingly.
He now claims his lawyer says he has legal right to everything on the site as partner #1 and I "resigned". They claim the loophole is in the disclaimer (which I wrote) that states all content is express property of the site. However, it does not state thesite.com or .org. Just the name. As we are now thesite.org, it can still apply, only to US.
What rights does he really have, and due to the fact there's jurisdictional issues here, would his lawyer even agree to try to fight this?
Can he claim we 'stole' the site content? As partner #1 and myself are the originators of the content, what rights do we have?
Thanks again for your time.
