Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Web design copyright laws

If all you did was delete the pages from the server, then you are correct: no copying was done. If you saved them to your hard drive, however, then he can argue that you copied his work.

It sounds like an interesting case in an area of the law where there is little, if any, precedent. If you are located in California, I would be happy to talk with you in more detail about your case.

You can contact me by email at [email protected]

Re: Web design copyright laws

Based on what you have said, the web page you created does not violate any of the other designer's copyrights. Mr. Walton may be right that any act of copying the other man's files onto your own machine was technically a copyright violation, but I doubt he could prove he was damaged by your copying, which would cause his suit to fail.

Your message header refers to California and Georgia. I just answered another question (message #886037762), posted two minutes before this one, from someone in Georgia who is being harassed by a California man involved in a lawsuit with a relative, so I suppose you are the same person who posted that one. There is a potential issue about where such a suit could be brought, and if he tries to sue you in California you may be able to have the suit thrown out due to lack of jurisdiction.

As I mentioned in my other response, a restraining order might be appropriate here as well.

If you are being sued groundlessly for harassment purposes, you can probably go after him for malicious prosecution (although you must first win his lawsuit).

There are some interesting issues here, and I would be happy to discuss them with you.

Re: Web design copyright laws

I suspect that you are not telling us the critical facts and that you have probably gotten bad advice as a result from the previously responding attorneys.

Even if you pulled the designer's files off the site, if you have retained the original visual appearances he created you have a potential copyright infringement problem. Did you?

If yes, you need to do more. You need to change the way the site looks and works to remove the creative input of the designer. Pulling files is helpful, but the extent of your copying of creative visual content originated by the web designer is likely to be the key issue in a web design copyright infringement suit.

Was there any written agreement between you and the web designer that his work was "work for hire"? If not, you did not handle this properly from a legal standpoint.

Be careful whom you consult. You appear to need to consult a competent copyright lawyer before you dig yourself a costly hole. In fact, you should have consulted one before embarking on a web site creation project. Doing things on the cheap will get you in trouble, as your post proves. Posting on lawguru indicates you are still trying to do things on the cheap. That is false economy; good legal advice will save you money in the long run, and it is not likely to come for free.