Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Greetings,

I have a question regarding my business website. About two years ago we brought a business and we decided to construct a website for our dry cleaners. We hired someone who charged us 1000 dollars for the construction of the website, where I gave him all of the writing for the pages. Along with this every two years he charges us 200 dollars for hosting and we have not even asked him to make any changes on the website.

Recently we contacted him and notified him that we want to switch our website someone else. It's been two weeks since our conversation and he has not been answering our phone calls to let us know how or when he's going to transfer. From what it seems like he is refusing to transfer the website that he has build for us and he is asking us to start all over again. I find this to be very frustrating since we have paid him money and we our entitled to our website. I was wondering if someone can give me any legal advice on what whether this is appropraite.


Asked on 11/14/10, 2:42 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
James Sanchez Law Office of James V. Sanchez

As a former software developer, I've seen this problem a few times. It appears that your website was built by the developer as a work for hire, and the intellectual property, unless otherwise claimed in a contract, is your own. The difficulty comes from the fact that depending on who has your domain name under control with the registrant (such as Register.com), you will need access to transfer the domain name to another hoster.

Additionally, you may need his help to move the site, unless its an advertising site only. For advertising sites, where all the content is present, another developer can scrape the site and move the contents for you. From a legal perspective, you may need a judgment to force the current hoster to release the domain name.

This is essentially a contracts issue and little tech law is required, other than basic IP understanding. Contact a competent attorney who can write a demand letter to the current host demanding release of the content files and the domain name to you.

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Answered on 12/05/10, 8:09 pm


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