Hi guys,
This inquiry is on the behalf of a friend..

A few months ago a company decided not to renew their webmaster's contract. He was made aware of this in writing. The company has requested him to provide them with the website's files and database and to cease the webhosting. He has refused to do so and he is holding onto the website's contents. I'm not sure what his motives are, he is probably looking for a pay off or something. He has been paid for all of his regular services.

Legally, who owns the website? The webmaster who designed the site or the company? The company don't want the design. Just the content on the pages and the content within the database.

The website uses a .ie and I have contacted the IEDR regarding changing the admin account so that they have ownership over the nameservers.

A friend could copy and the content off the website to his local PC but would prefer to know the legality of this issue.

Cheers.

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he got paid for the job so the entire code and design is owned by the payer in this case the company.

he should comply asap as is going to loose big time.

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That's not necessarily the case

It would depend on the contract

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The .ie domain should have been registered to the company or business NOT to the designer / developer

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Yes, it is registered to the company but the webmaster is down as the admin contact according to the whois.

In my contracts, I retain the IP and grant the customer a licence to use it. In this scenario I would give access to everything to the client - database, files, ftp, cp, etc.

There may be software that I've written that I want to keep or it may have been individual for them - if so I would be retaining it maybe - but generally it all would be made available! As your client is only looking for database records, it shouldn't be a problem. Threaten legal action and away you go! Normally design, domain, content are transferred upon final payment (domain should always be in customer name anyway).

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You can bypass him and go direct to the registrar and get them to change things. I've done that in the past with trouble webmasters!

He shouldn't be

In any case the domain is the company's "property", so the registrar / registry should update the records on request if the request is on company headed paper

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I don't know about this. The law states clearly (web design point of view) that if you design something for your client, as per his requirements and you got paid for the job fully, the client has all the rights for the code and design.
This is not the case for rented software or programs (e.g. per year use).

As a web developer you should mention in your contract that you have the right to re-use part of the code for different projects not related to the current one, etc...

Assuming that all bills are paid in full...

By default in law, all design and code belongs to the original creator unless explicitly signed over to another person in writing.
In this case your friend own copyright of these.


However in doing the original job he essentially created a licence to use the design and code for the original intended purpose, i.e. the website.
So his client should be allowed to use it for this purpose.

The content belongs to the original creator. If this is the client then your friends actions amount to theft. He should be very careful about withholding this.

The domain name Michele can answer more clearly.

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