If part of contract is unpaid do you own the content?

[kingmo]

What is the name of your state? New York

I am a web developer by trade. If I build a website that has say 4 milestone payments (1 - design, 2 - static pages, 3 - functions, 4 - mobile work). If I complete the full job or maybe there is a dispute on 1 of the milestones, but there is no agreement made to settle things on currently paid amount, do I own all the work (including the parts that were paid for like design)?
Do I own the parts that have not been paid (for example membership functions or mobile responsive work that's the last unpaid part) for and if so can I remove that work from a live website that they have been using for a couple months to do business or does that put me under any risk of lawsuit?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? New York

I am a web developer by trade. If I build a website that has say 4 milestone payments (1 - design, 2 - static pages, 3 - functions, 4 - mobile work). If I complete the full job or maybe there is a dispute on 1 of the milestones, but there is no agreement made to settle things on currently paid amount, do I own all the work (including the parts that were paid for like design)?
Do I own the parts that have not been paid (for example membership functions or mobile responsive work that's the last unpaid part) for and if so can I remove that work from a live website that they have been using for a couple months to do business or does that put me under any risk of lawsuit?

You should have all terms and conditions spelled out in your contract. Detailing payment obligations and ownership rights should be part of any good contract.

Anything can put you at risk of a lawsuit. Having a well-drafted agreement, however, will reduce the chances of a suit filed against you being successful.

 

[kingmo]

You should have all terms and conditions spelled out in your contract. Detailing payment obligations and ownership rights should be part of any good contract.

Anything can put you at risk of a lawsuit. Having a well-drafted agreement, however, will reduce the chances of a suit filed against you being successful.

unfortunately this was done through a freelancer platform, these are not outlined directly in their terms so i'm just trying to figure out the legalities behind taking down their website content (partial or whole) to enforce payment

basically my question is if they paid say $2,500 out of $5,000 can I remove the entire site (that they're currently using for business) because there was no agreement to sell them any part of it for less than 5k or can I remove only the parts that were unpaid, or can I not remove anything?

 

[quincy]

unfortunately this was done through a freelancer platform, these are not outlined directly in their terms so i'm just trying to figure out the legalities behind taking down their website content (partial or whole) to enforce payment

basically my question is if they paid say $2,500 out of $5,000 can I remove the entire site (that they're currently using for business) because there was no agreement to sell them any part of it for less than 5k or can I remove only the parts that were unpaid, or can I not remove anything?

If there was not a transfer of exclusive rights agreement signed by you, you would still hold the copyrights to any of the original creative work you designed.

Your oral agreement seems to have created a license to use the work, however, and what the understanding was between you and your client needs to be reviewed. Obviously your client paid you for something.

 

[zddoodah]

there is a dispute on 1 of the milestones

Such as?

do I own all the work (including the parts that were paid for like design)?

Depends entirely on the terms of the contract and other facts that may be relevant. The existence of a dispute of unknown nature, by itself, would not be dispositive of this issue.

Do I own the parts that have not been paid (for example membership functions or mobile responsive work that's the last unpaid part) for

This seems to be the same basic question.

can I remove that work from a live website that they have been using for a couple months to do business

We have no way of knowing what abilities you have.

does that put me under any risk of lawsuit?

In the abstract world of all that is hypothetical, there is no way anyone could intelligently answer this question in the negative.

Your post is tagged as relating to New York. Is the other party also in New York? If so, your recourse is to file a small claims lawsuit. If not, then this may be more expensive than it's worth to pursue.

 

[kingmo]

Such as?

Apple pay and zoom did not approve their business. Integrating those was agreed upon verbally, and now can't be done.



Depends entirely on the terms of the contract and other facts that may be relevant. The existence of a dispute of unknown nature, by itself, would not be dispositive of this issue.

So the contract was almost entirely verbal in this case, with the exception of that I was hired for $5,000 (that is stated clearly) and only $2,500 has been paid to date.



This seems to be the same basic question.



We have no way of knowing what abilities you have.



In the abstract world of all that is hypothetical, there is no way anyone could intelligently answer this question in the negative.

Your post is tagged as relating to New York. Is the other party also in New York? If so, your recourse is to file a small claims lawsuit. If not, then this may be more expensive than it's worth to pursue.

The other party is not in New York and I realize the lawsuit will be not worth it, which is why my preferred method is to remove part or all of the website to incentivize them to pay the rest. So my main question is can I just login to their live server and delete a bunch of stuff since full payment has not been made without putting myself at too much risk.

 

[quincy]

kingmo, in reviewing your posting history, it appears to me that you and your web development business would benefit greatly from some personal attention by a professional business law attorney.

It seems you need very basic written contracts signed between you and your clients so that everyone is clear on all of the terms and conditions and obligations of the parties involved. Your oral contracts are leading to unnecessary problems.

 

[Taxing Matters]

basically my question is if they paid say $2,500 out of $5,000 can I remove the entire site (that they're currently using for business) because there was no agreement to sell them any part of it for less than 5k or can I remove only the parts that were unpaid, or can I not remove anything?

That depends on all the details of the contract and the surrounding circumstances, which we don't know. However, chances are that your remedy here is simply to sue for what is owed to you. You've provided them the work that they are currently already using for their business, suggesting that they indeed have at least an implied right to use it. If you take down their site without being absolutely sure you have the right to do that you could end up owing them a whole lot more than they owe you now. Before going down that road you really need to get an opinion from an intellectual property attorney as to what rights each of you has in that work.

 

[quincy]

As a note: Enforcing the copyrights held by your web development company in the web design work would require first registering your creative work and then filing suit in federal court. A contract dispute, on the other hand, could be filed in small claims.

I would not remove any website work without a personal review by an attorney in your area. You potentially could seek an injunction/restraining order to prevent your client from using the website until payment is made in full. But you will want a court order before acting.

 

[zddoodah]

So the contract was almost entirely verbal in this case, with the exception of that I was hired for $5,000 (that is stated clearly) and only $2,500 has been paid to date.

"Almost entirely verbal" means something was in writing. Without knowing that, it's difficult to opine conclusively.

The other party is not in New York and I realize the lawsuit will be not worth it, which is why my preferred method is to remove part or all of the website to incentivize them to pay the rest. So my main question is can I just login to their live server and delete a bunch of stuff since full payment has not been made without putting myself at too much risk.

We have no conceivable way of knowing what damage some vaguely described, hypothetical actions ("delete a bunch of stuff") might cause to the other party or what action(s) the other party might take in response. I would imagine the following are among the possibilities:

1. The other party will pay you and you'll restore what you deleted.
2. The other party will hire someone else to fix what you did and lock you out from doing further vandalism.
3. Your vandalism will cause significant damage, and the other party will seek to have you criminally prosecuted and sue you for monetary damages.

If you're going to continue to this sort of thing as a business, you should get a good contract form that you can use.

 

[quincy]

Not only a good contract - but advice from a professional on running a successful web development business.

 

[kingmo]

Not only a good contract - but advice from a professional on running a successful web development business.

I get what you're saying I have normal contracts for clients I meet outside the freelancer platform. On that platform you abide by their contract which is vague in regards to above, but it's a big money maker. This rarely happens, it was my mistake for letting them set the website live before full payment

 

[quincy]

I get what you're saying I have normal contracts for clients I meet outside the freelancer platform. On that platform you abide by their contract which is vague in regards to above, but it's a big money maker. This rarely happens, it was my mistake for letting them set the website live before full payment

I agree that it was an error on your part to not make website access dependent on payment in full. It was a costly error.

 

[kingmo]

"Almost entirely verbal" means something was in writing. Without knowing that, it's difficult to opine conclusively.



We have no conceivable way of knowing what damage some vaguely described, hypothetical actions ("delete a bunch of stuff") might cause to the other party or what action(s) the other party might take in response. I would imagine the following are among the possibilities:

1. The other party will pay you and you'll restore what you deleted.
2. The other party will hire someone else to fix what you did and lock you out from doing further vandalism.
3. Your vandalism will cause significant damage, and the other party will seek to have you criminally prosecuted and sue you for monetary damages.

If you're going to continue to this sort of thing as a business, you should get a good contract form that you can use.

if i did sue them for some copyright infringement, are the damages here significant enough to make it worthwhile? i'm not going to court for the 2.5k they owe me, is there a way to drag this into 5 figure range?

 

[quincy]

if i did sue them for some copyright infringement, are the damages here significant enough to make it worthwhile? i'm not going to court for the 2.5k they owe me, is there a way to drag this into 5 figure range?

No. There is no way for you to inflate your $2500 damages.

Copyright infringement lawsuits require federal registration. When registration is done in a timely fashion, a copyright holder whose works have been infringed will be eligible for statutory damages ($750 to $30,000 per infringed work). Otherwise, the copyright holder will be limited to their own demonstrated losses or the infringe’s profits.