A few months back I paid a Webmaster to, not only design a paysite for me, but to also take pix for content on it. This week I got a call from a guy I'd never heard of, saying he had never gotten paid for the work he did on my site. Come to find out, the original "Webmaster" that I hired, wasn't doing any of the work, but sub-contracting it out.So, once I found this out, I fired the "Webmaster" telling him that I was going to work directly with the guy he hired, since he was the one doing all the work in the first place. Obviously, having been found out, he tried to lie his way out, but I told him I was done with him..period.  Well, today, my site was down, my email was down and basicly he changed all the passwords and information over to his info...Can he do that...? It took me half the day to get things back in place. But, I'm afraid he might do it again...Is there any legal recourse that I have...?? Since my pictures and site are XXX, can I get into trouble legally..?? PLEASE...If any of you have any information about how or if I can stop this NUT, Please PM me....ASAP...I'm really scared...!!! Thank You, Robyn

sometimes it is better just to cut ties and move on,,have a look www.myloganjohnson.org    mine is simple to use/no legal probs/plus my web master let me build one page at a time (cheaper)about 85/page with  fancy affects if you like mine scroll to bottom to find webmaster contact  and  it will go to her site ,,maria is great

You mentioned that it is a pay site.  I presume this means members only with pictures etc.  First of all your unpiad webmaster should have addressed his concern for non-payment directly with the man you were paying because the webmaster was owed a duty of payment from the guy you were paying, not from you.  Second,  you should have copyright protected your work, especially for a pay site where material is routinely stolen and re-used on other pay sites.  

You have several problems now.  The man you paid, let's call him business man and your actual webmaster will be called webmaster.  Even though business man was paying someone else to do your website design the business man owns the right to the design because your webmaster is known legally as a designer "for hire."  

When you pay someone to design on your behalf,  you own the copyright.  Since your business man was paying your webmaster to design for him,  the business man owns the the design, unless you also have a contract.

It is the man holding the camera who owns the right to your pictures absent an agreement by you specifying that you were hiring him to take those photos for your ownership.  The artist is the owner and then you coordinate your ownership through wirtten agreement.

 Similarly the man who makes the website owns the right to the creative work, unless he has a contract for hire to design the site as per someone's direction.

In other words, your business man probably had a written agreement with your webmaster,  if so then the business man owns the right to the web design.  If the business man did not have a signed agreement with you indicating that your photos were only a work for hire, then your busness man also owns the right to your photos.

Let me know who had contracts for what and I can give you a better opinion.  [email protected]

Off hand I would guess that business man watches out only for his best interest, so he had an agreement protecting the web deisgner's work as property of the business man.  I also estimate that busness man did not make an agreement for you regarding the content of your photos, which means the business man owns those too.  It could be that the business man can legally claim a right to both the design and your photos.  I would need more information.

First... is the domain name registered to you?

if you answered yes... you will have no problem getting back your domain...

if the domain is registered in your webmasters name or company name... chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on...

ok.. if you are the domain registraint....

step 1.... make sure that all bills are paid in full and current to your former webmaster.... otherwise he can take you to court...

step 2.... call the 'web host'.. (the company that is serving your web page) on the phone and explain that you have fired your webmaster and that you need the vital password and account information.... if you dont know who this is.. i can tell you how to find out... i didnt want to list it here..

step 3... call netsol/verisign and explain the situation to them... if you are the domain registraint or owner.. they will help you change over passwords and account information...

step 4...  hire a new web designer... have everything registered in your name.. keep copies of all pages images and scripts... keep your bill paid in full...

more than likely your webmaster has pulled down all your files and images and data and you will need to start from scratch.... no... he isnt allowed to do this if you purchased the design from him... but it happens.... yes you could go to court to have it all given back to you.. but its prolly easier to start a new...

if you need any help getting this done.. give me a call 909)757-6178 or send me an email to [email protected] and ill do what i can to help you through this.. and get your site and email back up and running... time is cash.. and it sucks to lose either....

good luck...
your partner in crime and another tainted webgirl...
joi ~

All of our agreements were through emails...But I do have emails from the "businessman" stating he would be sending me the photos and also emails of other,earlier pix that were sent to me by him and are on my site now. The "Webmaster he hired, was told he would be paid by me. I feel that the "Monkey Businessman" planned on passing the work off as his own, that's why I fired him, not to mention he didn't do what I asked him to do. My site is not a paysite as of yet and that was the reason I hired him was to make it a pay site. 99% of the work was already done by me already....So how can he have any rights to that.? Also, how can he go in legally and change all my passcodes to private email, PayPal and internet, blocking me access..?? Hardly seems fair....I know...I got screwed..without a kiss....

Who's doing the web site hosting? They're the ones with the passwords and controls over access. Did your "business man" subcontract that out too? You need to get in touch with them yourself.

It sounds like you should have checked this man's reviews first Seriously, didn't you check his references? Ah.... live and learn......

Reesign not the same thing as hosting

This person was a personal friend( yeh, Right) and I thought he could be trusted, so he was given all that info so he could set up the pay part of my site. The bottom line here is that. he thought he could let someone else do the work, then reap the 20% off my site every month...Nice Gig if you can get it....aand your right...Live and Learn...

I have to disagree with some of the other responses here.  Normally when you enter into a contract for someone to do work for you, that person can subcontract to his heart's content and you have no right to complain that he has done so.  If the subcontractor does a poor job you can complain about the quality of the work, but the same would be true if the original contractor had done an equally poor job.  The fact that there is a second person involved doesn't really matter.

The major exception to this general rule is where the person you hire posesses unusual skills and you have hired him in order to have those skills applied to your needs.  If you hire Pavarotti to sing at your party you can be justifiably upset if he sends a replacement, but hire him to water your garden and it just doesn't matter who does the work, as long as the work gets done properly and for the agreed price.

So the question here is whether the webmaster you hired had unique skills which you wanted to use.  Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.  After all, even if you looked at samples of other pages his company had created, they might also have been the work of this same subcontractor.  My guess is that you don't know.

So, assuming you have nothing to complain about here, you were in the wrong to try to get around the webmaster by dealing directly with his subcontractor.  When you did that, you breached your contract with him and (unless you have an agreement that says otherwise) he is no longer obligated to hold up his end of the bargain.  He was probably justified in shutting down your site.

The bottom line here is that he acted properly and you incorrectly believed he was cheating you.  The fact that you really did believe this shows you are acting in good faith, but he's still entitled to the payments due under the contract and to forbid you to work directly with his subcontractor. (He can also end his relationship with the sub over this transaction.)

In answer to your other concern, the fact that the pictures are explicit is irrelevant to the rest of the analysis.

The answer is simple. Scew them both. Download the files from your server and upload to a new server or simple build your own site on a new server. Its a weekend project for anyone that can fill in the blanks.

oh thats nice... and next time your in saks... just rip the tags off and walk out...

I've decided, since I had nothing in writing, to cut my loses. I'm taking new pix this week and will have all of this jerks pix off shortly after. The work that was done by the sub-contractor was not at all what I wanted anyway, so this has been a hard lesson. Folks..no matter how good a friend you think someone is, get it in writing. Greed does crazy things to seemingly good people and just brings out the worst in them. I'm far to trusting, but I try to look for the good in people and I refuse to allow this loser to make me bitter.....I do have a question though...If anyone can subcontract out their work and pass it off as theirs, then why do Hobbyists get so upset when they call an agency thinking their getting one girl and the agency sends out someone else...If your correct, one shouldn't be conserned about who's coming, just as long as someone does and he gets the service he paid for....Is that correct.? The whole idea SUCKS...in my opinion....Thank You all for taking the time to show me what my opptions are...Peace & Love, Robyn

Thanks Joi, I got all of that done and my site is up again. Yes it's my domain....He never did the work I hired him to do, so he has no right to it. My problem has been my photo's. I gave him over $1200 and he did nothing on my site but take the pictures. I still believe I have paid him and should be able to keep my pix. Any thoughts on that...? Thanks again Sweetie, Robyn

i wouldnt hesitate to take him to court...  your membership adult website has nothing to do with this.. hobby... right?... so get whats yours... your images which you paid for or your money back...

curious... were they actual photographs or digital images?... did you actually purchase the images or did you pay a lump sum  for the web design which included the images?
were the digital images marked or tagged with your domain?...
do you have 'any' of the images?

i think you mentioned that all your correspondence is in email.. but no actual signed contract or release...  i dont know much legal stuff.. but i dont see why those emails wouldnt at least give you some ground...

basically.. doesnt he have to provide something for the money he received... either that or prove that it was some sort of generous donation... i dont know..

i know that if it were me...  id be standing in line at the clerks office... biz is biz..

im glad you got your site back up.. congrats..

joi ~

You think like me...Yes the pix(digitals) have my domain name on them...and yes I do have copies. I've told him I will not remove the pix, since I feel I have paid enough for them...He also is still intercepting my email through the site....eventhough he's been fired. The site is exactly as it was when I brought him aboard to make it a paysite, so he did no work on it. The work he subcontracted out, was not what I wanted, so just ended up costing me time and money, Plus he has all the pix I took, plus my videos that he will not return. So we're at a stalemate...This guy just keeps getting stranger and stranger...He is now sending me copies of all my postings on this board, with threatining comments attached and has notified all my affiliate programs that he is still my Webmaster and all emails will go through him....He even stated in one email to me, that I fired him because he didn't want a romantic relationship with me..!!! Unbelievable...!!! Since this guy can't hold a job and doesn't have a life of his own, he has nothing but time to be a pain in my ass....The insanity contiues, Very sad indeed.

Hey Robyn,

Are all of the digi-pics branded with your domain name, or watermarked?  

I didn't read the entire thread because I'm busy slurping down a really excellent bottle of Zinfandel. OK, but I digress. . . you may want to keep an eye out for those pics being posted on other sites without your permission, and you may want to look at copyrighting/trademarking your images.  

In the future I suggest you consider getting a Digimark(R) Watermark ID and using it on your photos to track who is using them and where.