Intellectual Property

[Treefungus]

Hi

I am in talk with a guy who want's my help to move host but his current developer does not want release the files/website due to "Intellectual Property" unless the guy pays $200 according to a contract where the "Intellectual Property" fee is outlined.

I am wondering what you guys think and if you do the same to your clients? Is it normal with this "Intellectual Property"?

Looking forward to hear your thoughts.

[Summer]

No it's not normal. In my book, it's extortion, a desperate way for some devs to squeeze out every last dime in an underhanded manner.

Apparently it used to be far more commonplace for web designers to put together entire sites and in some cases register the domains for their clients in addition to hosting the sites for them, but in order to continue to hold on to enough "revenue streams", they'd say that the work the client paid them for was technically their "intellectual property", and ask exorbitant fees in order to transfer the data and sometimes even the domain name to the client, meaning the client was screwed when they wanted to look for new hosting (cheaper) or new website pros (possibly better).

I could never understand that... what did the client pay them for if not for the website? And registering the domain as theirs instead of in their clients' name? That's just wrong in my book. I worked at an ISP for a while, and I heard complaints about web developers who were hosting sites for their clients and literally holding them hostage, or making it as expensive or as difficult as possible for those folks to get their websites/domains back.

Any time I took over support or design for a new site, and I saw that the domains were owned by the previous dev and not the client, I hounded them until they took care of that.

I think it's rephrensible, dishonest and unethical, especially when it is not spelled out ahead of time. It shows a complete lack of character and integrity, but in most of the cases I came across, such things weren't spelled out ahead of time, and the client didn't find out that's how the person they'd hired operated until they wanted to move to someone new.

Unfortunately, your guy signed a contract where that was specifically spelled out, so he likely doesn't have a choice but to pay. If I'd seen that clause in a document for work prior to the work starting, I would have insisted they remove it, or drop them and look for someone else.

I don't do such things when I'm designing or hosting sites for clients. I will even go out of my way to make sure they purchase the premium plugins and themes, unless they want me to do the hosting as well, since I want them to be as free as possible to move on if and when they so choose.

But I've also seen some clients ask for a lot of work spec'ing and scoping and end up not doing anything or using your work to shop around, and sometimes you can't protect yourself from that. I let them know that I'll charge an hourly fee for prep work and consulting on the project before the project, and in the case of clients who insist on a flat project fee instead of hourly, I ask for 50% up front, just to cover my time.

And don't get me started where domains become turf wars between husband & wife business partners when they're going through divorce. Talk about messy...

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WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After Dark

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