C
CaliCat
Guest
What is the name of your state? California
Last year I needed a website and found a girl willing to make it in exchange for two dresses that I custom make. Now these dresses sell for as much as $2,000 each and REALLY do sell. So she made the website and I made her the dresses. We were very good friends for months. Earlier this year she decided she wanted another dress as well all in crystal trims and such, and I declined. So she took down the site saying that unless I make her the dress she wants, she won't put the site back up. The site originally stated that the designs and graphics were copyrighted to my site's name. I offered to make her the dress for the cost of materials only ($600 for the materials and crystals). She declined. She has since moved from Florida to Holland, and now claims that I only paid for her "services" and that the graphics are hers. Well, by the same token she "paid" for only my services in making the dresses. She is leaving product exchange out of it.
She now has the dresses and the use of my talents and claims to also own the grapgics, leaving me with the temporary use of her talents. BUT when things started souring I copied every single graphic on the page, which she doesn't know.
She also is slandering me, claiming that I payed someone else to make the dresses for my site, another dressmaker online, who charges much more than I do (I charge $1750 for a dress she charges $200 for, etc.). Even though this accusation makes no sense (isn't the point of business to make money, not lose it? and why can't the other seamstress provide pics of the dresses when I take them step-by-step?), I have lost my own credibility as well as so much business that I have been blackballed in the seamstress world. I have many people who will go to court testifying to seeing me make the dresses (my poor mom and fiance got the worst-I asked their opinions every two days).
All because I wouldn't make the stupid dress for her wedding.
Now I ask this: Who owns the copyrights to the graphics? And can I do anything to her legally?
Last year I needed a website and found a girl willing to make it in exchange for two dresses that I custom make. Now these dresses sell for as much as $2,000 each and REALLY do sell. So she made the website and I made her the dresses. We were very good friends for months. Earlier this year she decided she wanted another dress as well all in crystal trims and such, and I declined. So she took down the site saying that unless I make her the dress she wants, she won't put the site back up. The site originally stated that the designs and graphics were copyrighted to my site's name. I offered to make her the dress for the cost of materials only ($600 for the materials and crystals). She declined. She has since moved from Florida to Holland, and now claims that I only paid for her "services" and that the graphics are hers. Well, by the same token she "paid" for only my services in making the dresses. She is leaving product exchange out of it.
She now has the dresses and the use of my talents and claims to also own the grapgics, leaving me with the temporary use of her talents. BUT when things started souring I copied every single graphic on the page, which she doesn't know.
She also is slandering me, claiming that I payed someone else to make the dresses for my site, another dressmaker online, who charges much more than I do (I charge $1750 for a dress she charges $200 for, etc.). Even though this accusation makes no sense (isn't the point of business to make money, not lose it? and why can't the other seamstress provide pics of the dresses when I take them step-by-step?), I have lost my own credibility as well as so much business that I have been blackballed in the seamstress world. I have many people who will go to court testifying to seeing me make the dresses (my poor mom and fiance got the worst-I asked their opinions every two days).
All because I wouldn't make the stupid dress for her wedding.
Now I ask this: Who owns the copyrights to the graphics? And can I do anything to her legally?