Anybody faced this before?
A few months ago I began a project for an acquittance of a friend. He was starting up a new business and asked if I would help out with the website. He didn't have money at time but I began work on the site anyway saying I'd do it without pay. (First mistake but hindsight is 20/20)
A few months go by and I've dished many many hours into the site. (It's a site similar to Tiger Direct and I didn't know php and mySQL at the time. Mistake number two) but his promises of "compensation when he began making money" kept work going.
At one time he was offering me a large sum of money if the starting business had sold (at the time he was talking to a local to sell the business. which neve happened)
Now I am back in school and haven't had time to work on the site for a few months. I told him that I don't have time to work on his site and that I wanted to remove my name and be compensated for the hundreds of hours I'd put in. Everything from designing to coding the website, to editing hundreds of images (many not automated) to designing business cards.
Now he is telling me "You never asked for compensation and I never offered." so he won't pay me. (I am only asking for $350.00 which is far more than fair if you ask me). I still have all the original files that I worked on and designed for the site.
Anybody able to offer any legal advice? From my understanding I still have Intellectual Property rights over the work because I am the sole creator. He hasn't paid me in anyway shape or form for the copyrights to the work. And because there was no paper involved neither of us can properly claim anything, but I can prove designing the site itself.
If you have ever been a situation like this I would appreciate any legal counsel. I may take this to small claim court if I can win it, this is theft if you ask me.
Thanks in advance.
-D'Arcy
