Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Minnesota

Web Host lost Intellectual Property
I rent an internet server which I use to host a few webpages for some friends/family. I charge a few of these people approximately cost in order to recoup charges on the server. Recently my parents have become divorced and my step-father was two months behind on his payments and being unruly to our entire family so I terminated his webpage/email that was hosted on my server. Due to the timeframe of this cancellation (end of month) the data was deleted automatically before I was able to send him backups.

We never had any contract, verbal or written - all arrangements were made through my mother and the backups were available to him up until the day of termination.

I also did not give any notice of this termination. The webpage hosted was for a small club, not a business.

He is now threatening to sue me for slander and theft of intellectual property (his email). Does he have any legal ground?

Asked on 8/05/04, 7:36 pm

David Anderson Anderson Business Law LLC

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Re: Web Host lost Intellectual Property

Usually there are TOU (terms of use) agreements to control this, but in the absence of those, general contract rules apply.

You may have some liability. What is the "slander" he is alleging?

WOuld he agree to mediation?

How much would he take to settle this?

Answered on 8/05/04, 10:34 pm

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