extortion?

[philip2000]

What is the name of your state?Maryland
I bought a dental practice in january 2003 and decided to continue the tech support for the software the previous owners had.
The contract expired on June 30, 2003 and the computer system crashed july 11,2003. The software company refuses to restore our system without us signing up for 6 more months of support. I requested a per/incident fee but he refused.
This company is the only company that can restore our system, which has patient information on it! Without this system running, we are unable to access patient information.
Is this data MY property, and therefore, does he have to return what is rightfully mine?

 

[hexeliebe]

No, this is not extortion. This is business. Yes, the data is yours. But the program to store the data in the form in which it resides on your computer system belongs to the company that designed and licensed it to you.

When you bought the practice did you also review the software license agreement? If not, then do so now. Otherwise, pay for the six months and get your data moved to a program that has a wider customer base so you can get pre-incident support.

 

[philip2000]

I am surprised that the law allows for this style of "business".
I feel like I am being black-mailed into buying his support. There is no other company that can help me, we ARE going to change to another computer system, but we need to have the data available to do so.

 

[hexeliebe]

Please don't take this as being flippant, but based on your last answer you've never dealt with Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle or the other large software companies. This is standard procedure. If you don't pay for support you don't get the service.

The best thing to do is as I suggested, pay for the six months and in the process retrieve your data in CSV format (a comma-delimited list) and use the time to shop around for other options.

The reason you save the information in the CSV format is because every database in existence can interpret it and insert the data into it's format.

 

[philip2000]

Please don't take this as being flippant, but based on your last answer you've never dealt with Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle or the other large software companies. This is standard procedure. If you don't pay for support you don't get the service.

The best thing to do is as I suggested, pay for the six months and in the process retrieve your data in CSV format (a comma-delimited list) and use the time to shop around for other options.

The reason you save the information in the CSV format is because every database in existence can interpret it and insert the data into it's format.

no offense taken. This is actually a SMALL company that is using UNIX. The software company that I WANT to use is unable to convert this data into a useable format.

I might be able to get some help from another source if this person would allow root password priveleges for the operating system. I am going to ask him to do this, but i am 99% certain he will refuse.
He is FORCING me to keep a service I do not want because we rely on the patient data to run our practice.

 

[hexeliebe]

It depends on how the data is being stored. Even UNIX based programs run some sort of database storage system. Programs do not keep data in machine code (1s and 0s).

There are other options that I use to help people out of quandries like this, but I can't tell you online. Just know the word starts with an H and ends with an R and has something to do with reverse-engineering the program to retrieve the data.

The minimum I would do in this case is ask an attorney to draft a letter o compromise. Agree that you will pay for 6 months more of support in exchange for retrieving the data in text format.

Do you do data backups now or is all the information left in the program's database?

 

[philip2000]

[Do you do data backups now or is all the information left in the program's database? [/B][/QUOTE]
the data is on tape, but I think HE has the means of RESTORING the data, NOT US(I will have to check on that to be certain)

 

[philip2000]

I might be able to restore a backup once the system is running....but I believe it to be an operating system error as well as a software error

let me give you an analogy of how I feel this guy is treating me.

You are a patient of the ONLY dentist in town, there are NO OTHERS you can go to. You come in to have a cavity treated.
After he drills out the decay, he stops and says, "I can't finish this filling until you pay me right now"

now THAT is illegal?!

 

[hexeliebe]

Yes it is, but it's also unethical.

And you are not concerned with unethical here, only legal.

You are going to spend a lot more hiring a computer programmer to discover if it is indeed a system or programming error or if, in fact, the program was intended to shut down if the support was not paid...than you are to pay the six months and demand your data be retrieved in usable format.

This is not a fight worth spending time and money over.

 

[philip2000]

thank you

thank you for your advice
I finally did decide to renew the ransom note for 6 months of support.
Hopefully i won't need to use that company again.
too bad legal and ethical aren't always the same thing

 

[hexeliebe]

You made a wise decision Phil.

Now I'll tell you why your last statement is oh so true. I recently designed a marketing management program for Sun Microsystems in California. The contract was for design and development of the database and programming interface with three months of support and training.

Well guess what? I'm still receiving calls and travel there (at their expense) now and then to help out with minor glitches in the program. Am I getting paid for the work? Except for the travel and great meals I'm able to charge to them, no.

But that's just the way I do business.

Now, what are you doing to secure your data in a form that will allow you to leave these jerks behind at the end of the six months?