Web Design issue

[Crispy]

Hey guys, I need some solid advice. I developed a website for this individual back in January. Since he was a friend of a friend, I didnt whip out a contract (stupid). So essentially everything was done through emails back and forth. At one point I got so aggrevated with individual that I refused to do any more updates for him, he was having me build a site then changing his mind on how it should look, from simple to complex and so on and so on. Well anyways, I finally got my check, finished the site, i placed my logo in the website, which im sure was okay with the owner. Now, I check the website, its basically the same with a few minor updates, not much ... but my logo has been removed and replaced with another companys. There is no trace of me ever building it now. When I went to show this to a customer I was quickly embarrassed to find that I could not prove to them that I did this site because it linked to another web development website who is taking credit for it on their website. What do I do?

[Rocket2Uranus]

I can't give you legal advice, but I have been there and can give you some practical advice.

If they are hostile, I think it is a lost cause. If not, ask them to fix their site, changing the credit to "maintained by..."

If you still have all of the source files, put them up on your server and show your customers that. If you need to, spend a few minutes changing some details, and turn it into an "example of your work" instead of a part of your portfolio.

Good luck.

[Crispy]

Thank you for your advice FrontRow

[centerpoint]

I agree with FrontRow. We also have had situations where the company maintaining the site have changed the credit.

I have found that in some cases the site owner doesn't even know it has been changed and will gladly change it back.

[Banned: timechange.com]

Unless there was a written agreement to maintain your logo on that site, there is nothing you can do.

Keep copies of your work for yourself as web sites change.

[Crispy]

Well, I asked them in an email if I could put my logo on the webpage and that was fine a few months ago when I was developing the site, which I still have. We never had a formal contract so I mean, I was paid for the work, but technically do I still own the images? Anyhow, the thing that disturbs me guys is that this company is literally taking the credit for my design - "Website Development" is what they title themselves as. All they did was update a few buttons and expand the page to full screen, other than that, the whole look and design is mine. The way I figure it is, I couldnt go into a pizza store, buy a pizza and sell it as my own to a customer .... that's illegal, so what makes this any different? They took my name off the website development and replaced it with their when all they did was update slightly. If there's anyone or any lawyers that could write me up something powerful to email them to the web designers and scare them with, I would really REALLY appreciate it, something that has strong language. If I cant find anyone on this board, I think I'm going to go talk to a lawyer at my college. Though I may not be able to force them to do anything, I really want to send them an email. Thank you ahead of time if anyone is willing to help me out.

[DomainPairs]

You can buy a pizza and sell it to someone else. Lots of places do this - they are called shops. If you don't have any copyright on the site, you can't stop them using it or putting a maintained by notice on it because it's true. They can't say they designed it if they didn't, and you may be able to get this into a supplementary credit.

[Crispy]

When I say sell a pizza from another place i mean you cant buy a pizza and make it look like you made it (taking the credit for the pizza itself). I dunno what I'm going to do. Thanks for the response.

[WildCard]

Who says you can't buy a pizza and sell it as your own? On a practical sense, it wouldn't work given it would get cold and yucky before you could arrange a buyer and delivery of the pizza.

But I have a dell monitor that was really made by samsumg - and even though there are a million companies selling CD burners these days, I think there is only 3 companies that really manufacture them.

It's reselling, and it's a way of life for many industries. I agree with suggestions above, take a snap shot of the site, and put the image on your site as example of past work. Not many are going to compare the logo on the present site as compared to your work.

-WC-

PS: Who told you it was illegal to resell pizza? You're funny man!

[revsorg]

Personally if I were in this position I'd move on and let the new designers attribute the site to themselves. If they really do maintain it then you would expect the design to move away from anything you have (or would have) done on the site as time goes by.

[Anthony Ng]

Originally posted by Crispy
... Anyhow, the thing that disturbs me guys is that this company is literally taking the credit for my design - "Website Development" is what they title themselves as. All they did was update a few buttons and expand the page to full screen, other than that, the whole look and design is mine.

The tricky part is that "Website Development" thing. If they say "Website Design", that would be different. Development COULD include anything from design to re-design, update and maintenance. Moreover, it is NOT a must that a designer owns the copyright of that design; usually it doesn't and depends on your agreement (oral or written).

I wouldn't mention this website AT ALL especially when there's already some argument before. They won't render any good words of mouth about you anyway, to say the least.

[Crispy]

No, I'm not going to mention the website. I appreciate the comments good or bad, whatever the case was. Id just like to finish it off by saying, you cant take someones product and put ur label on it as your own, you'd find yourself in a quick lawsuit. Thanks guys