7 replies to this topic

[suprapsu]

I hired this company called Holomaxx Technologies, he is a one man show. I hired him as an in-house consultant from Sept to December. While he was here he did some customized work on oscommerce. I agreed to pay him $16 an hour and he work 40 hours a week. He started to going to work later and later until the point where he is only working 20 hours a week. After I told him he needs to show up to work on time and leave on time he decided to quit on me. After he quit he decided to disable online ordering on my website and mess up the entire layout. On the bottom of the website he wrote "HardwareCooling.com does not pay their bills on time or in full". He is now turning around and charging me an annual licensing fee of $1500. In addition, he decided to turn around and rebill me at a rate of $85 per hour. He is now claiming all the rights to the work he did on my websites.

All my files were hosted on his webserver. He disabled ftp access so we could not update the website at all. After he messed up my website I decided to transfer all the files onto another webhost. After I moved my website to another web-host he reported me to the DMCA for using an illegal copy of this "oscommerce based" software on my webhost's server. My webhost requires me to disable the software for 10 to 14 business days in order to counter the dmca notice.

From my understanding oscommerce is protected under the GPL license and I am right in this case. It is obvious that he is giving me problems here. I do not owe him any money whatsoever. He was paid for his time at the end of every week.

[geoffreywalton]

Interesting tale, unless there is a contract it will be difficult for him to prove what changes he actually did. Just as it will be difficult to prove you own the copyright on any changes he made.

If all the changes are contributions I would say that is GPL and you are paying for his time but if he changed one line of code where does that put you? Is it his or yours?

Morale of this . Get it in writing.

[carloscanas]

If he was working as an employee, you own the rights to any customization, not him. If he was a subcontractor, what are the terms of your contract? Normally, the owner of the any changes is the one doing the contracting not the contractor unless expressed like that in writing. Is it there any written contract for hosting your site? OS Commerce and any OS Commerce contributions are under the GPL license and therefore "free" software. I would assume, and I am not a lawyer, that if there is no written contract, the guy was a subcontractor doing work for you and therefore he does not own the right to any customizations, new programs, or changes. Also, if there was no written contract, and assuming that you did not at any time taslked about "licensing", he does not have the right to charge a license or usage fee. I would call a lawyer and get this guy, he is just trying to take advantage of you.

[suprapsu]

It is obvious that he is taking advantage of me. He is making up his own rules and seizing one of my websites until I pay him $30,000. He took down the website for a whole week. I am in the process of hiring an attorney. I think he pushed his luck too far.

carloscanas, on Dec 19 2008, 05:10 PM, said:

If he was working as an employee, you own the rights to any customization, not him. If he was a subcontractor, what are the terms of your contract? Normally, the owner of the any changes is the one doing the contracting not the contractor unless expressed like that in writing. Is it there any written contract for hosting your site? OS Commerce and any OS Commerce contributions are under the GPL license and therefore "free" software. I would assume, and I am not a lawyer, that if there is no written contract, the guy was a subcontractor doing work for you and therefore he does not own the right to any customizations, new programs, or changes. Also, if there was no written contract, and assuming that you did not at any time taslked about "licensing", he does not have the right to charge a license or usage fee. I would call a lawyer and get this guy, he is just trying to take advantage of you.

[cannuck1964]

If the web site is yours, and the domain is yours, I would send him a nice letter from your attorney, and let him know that not only are you going to sue for lost income. GPL is exactly that, GPL, and all work he did is also licensed as GPL. He can not license it any differently. He is bound and if you had the files released to you, then that is distribution and as such he has no leg to stand on.

cheers,

[markg@dpie.com]

Best consult your attorney for anything reliable. However, the fact that matters is that you employed him directly so anything he did during that period is yours.

[jlynskey]

in order to claim legitimate ownership to any of the original code written by him he would have to have the code copyrighted through the us patent and trademark office (if usa). in order for him to do that, that code cannot be displayed publicly, in other words, the website cannot be previously released for view or use to the public.

if his modifications were immediately visible online after he modified it, than any hope of him owning a legitimate copyright is impossible. if he files for copyright after the fact, you could even revoke his application, even if it had been previously approved. if that happens, i believe he will even have to pay fines and penalties for copyright law violation.

it sounds to me that idiot is barking up the wrong tree and if i were you i would sue im for deliberately trying to sabotage your business. there iare serious penalties for doing that. i would definitely get a lawyer. in the end, he might have to pay you $30,000!!!!!!!!!! (or even more)

[toyicebear]

Or if this drags on..simply get hold of a developer with reasonable prices and make a new site....