Copyright Infringement

Ok, so I have an issue.

This site (www.octanegaming.com/site) is using a template I made. I was supposed to be paid for it, but never received payment. The guy using my template refuses to take it down. He has now gone as far as banning my forum account, and blocking my IP from the domain. I've contacted the host of the website (HostGator), about it, but what else can I do?

I have the original PSD file, but he has a copy. I have many people who will back me up saying it is my original creation, but that could just be on a he said/she said basis. I have logs from when I was discussing with him about the creation of the website. But those could be modified.

I was very patient on this, and have waited almost a month with my site being used and not being paid. My patience has worn out, and im being stolen from.

Well I don't know if you'll get your money. Seems to be having trouble by the looks of his front page. Seeing how it is a Ragnarok server, maybe you could report him to Gravity to shut him down.

Your site looks nice BTW.

Midnight Dream said:

Ok, so I have an issue.

This site (www.octanegaming.com/site) is using a template I made. I was supposed to be paid for it, but never received payment. The guy using my template refuses to take it down. He has now gone as far as banning my forum account, and blocking my IP from the domain. I've contacted the host of the website (HostGator), about it, but what else can I do?

I have the original PSD file, but he has a copy. I have many people who will back me up saying it is my original creation, but that could just be on a he said/she said basis. I have logs from when I was discussing with him about the creation of the website. But those could be modified.

I was very patient on this, and have waited almost a month with my site being used and not being paid. My patience has worn out, and im being stolen from.

Click to expand...

Your next step is a carefully worded letter (and email, if possible), demanding payment for your work. Make it very clear in your letter, that legal action will be promptly forthcoming against him if your payment is not received within the next 14 days. (Assuming your original agreement was to be paid in full upon completion of your work). You need to be sure the letter is sent to him "return receipt requested", so you have a physical record that it was indeed received.

See if you have free legal assistance available in your area. Sometimes a letter like this from an attorney's office gets the ball rolling right along.

Get your legal "ducks" all lined up. Just because he has copies and your stuff could be faked, doesn't mean that you can't prevail against him in a court of law. This is not a criminal case, and you don't have to prove he's guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt", just "a preponderance of the evidence", will do. Every contact you had with him regarding the job, in order, by date, and the files themselves.

Good luck,

Adak

Don't try hacking the site or slandering the guy in public or anything that would take the "shine" off of your case against him.

but i could hack it for you LOL jk man i dont do that but nice site

Thanks everybody for the kind words and advice. I will wait for word from HostGator while I consult a few friends of mine with some law experience. As for slanderous things, the only thing I did was make a post, which he deleted, but I put on a work in progress piece of artwork that was still up, for others to see, so they would know what happened (http://void-design.net/temp/Work.jpg)

I will have to see where this goes, and if anybody else has some advice, please feel free to PM or email me ([email protected])

I am no lawyer, but if you made an agreement with him, verbal, electronic, or otherwise that he would pay you a defined amount for your development of the template, then you have a right to be paid.

Generally, I'd say just drop it and learn a lesson, but going through a proper accounting process will help you build better deals in the future:

Send him an invoice (in paper, if possible, if not, use PDF). Include on the invoice:
* the list of work you did,
* the amount of time you spent on the project,
* the date it was completed,
* the deliverables (what you gave him),
* a final dollar amount to be paid.
* if possible, a reference to the email where he requested the work, and agreed to pay (by date and time of message)
* As much information as you have (preferably real name & mailing address)

On the invoice, state that:
* 'in exchange for the above delievered goods and/or services, you have agreed to pay the agreed-upon amount listed above'
* provide payment options
* mark the invoice as 'due upon receipt'
* put the current date on it as the date of issue
* state that 'invoices are "overdue" after 30 days'
* state that 'you will not dispute over overdue invoices.'
* List that overdue invoices are charged a overdue fee of $2 or 3%, whichever is more, each month the account is in overdue status. (Each month re-issue the invoice to him, with an added line item for "Overdue fees for June", etc.)
* List that after a failure to pay for a period of more than 90 days, the account will be taken over to a third-party collections agency, and that they agree to pay the fees to cover the costs of the collections agency.

A collections agency won't be worth it for this, but it may scare the pants off him... their job is to hound you for payment.. call you at home, at work, show up and bug you about paying, try to garnish your wages, etc. This is good for customers that are running off without paying large bills.

Well, what I figured would happen did. When I finally started to expose him to everybody, he took the donations and disappeared.