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A domain owner came to me to build a website. I built the site and hosted it on my private server while it was in development. The website never went live and out of testing but the domain owner decided he didn't want to deal with me anymore. There was too many issues he had that he didn't bring up so he took the domain and left. I heard today that he is about to sue me over the website because he says it belongs to him. He had no hand in developing it, he only tested it. He has had no contact with me since he left and I heard about this through a mutual friend. I was developing the site for free and was charging him nothing. Can he sue me over this?
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Nancy J. Flint Attorney at Law, P.A.
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Generally websites are protected under copyright law and the person who created the website is the author and the owner - even if someone paid to have it made. That other person may have a license to use the website but the author is the owner unless there is a written agreement saying someone else owns it. There is an exception if you created it as an employee but that doesn't sound like what happened. He would have to show that he has ownership or some license to the website or that you breached some agreement if he was to win in a lawsuit against you. Since he didn't pay anything, it doesn't sound like he would be successful. However, anyone can sue over anything even if they don't have good grounds and even if they don't win. Often there are additional facts that could be important so you should consider talking to an attorney - or else wait and see if he sues you and then talk to an attorney.
Answered on Dec 30th, 2012 at 11:53 AM