How can I protect my code - ripped off again!

conjurer

I had a client I trusted and shouldn't have. She wanted me to do a major rework of her entire site color scheme, add some pages, etc. Now that she has seen how many hours it has taken she is choking and wanting me to eat my time.

She has decided to move the site to another web host and take future work somewhere else, which suits me fine!

I am still waiting to see if she, or the folks she is moving to, copied my revised files off the web location I had put them at for testing before I had a chance to shut it down. I don't think she was savvy enough to know you needed files to make the web site work. 😉 That is half the reason she doesn't understand why it took so much time to rework her site.

However, based on the old addage - fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me! :mad: what are some possible ideas to prevent something like that in the future where someone might copy the finished work files before paying you and then screw you out of the money? I wondered if anyone had any ideas on how to protect your code from something like that.
One thought I had was maybe coding some booby trap that would cause the page to display something embarrassing after a certain date if I didn't remove it first. At least then if they copied it over to their site and didn't go through it line by line they would at some point have some big surprise staring them in the face.

What thoughts do others here have to protect their work until they are paid in full?

Thanks for your ideas.

mjax

With a tool like Zend Encoder, you can encode and timelimit your PHP files. In your situation you could for example encode all your files to work for one year. You have to refresh this every year off course, but if somebody rips those files, they will be in for a nasty surprise after one year!

vaaaska

Now that she has seen how many hours it has taken she is choking and wanting me to eat my time.

So, she had no idea how much time you were going to put in on it? Or, you managed your time very poorly and expect her to pay for it? Something clearly is not right here and it's more your fault than hers for not managing your project properley.

Sorry, I'd never hire you either...

Jason_Batten

Don't rush. Take things slow. Plan. Price. AND NEVER GIVE THE CLIENT ANY CODE UNLESS they have a good track record for payments.

Slap yourslef. Twice. 🙂 then forgive and move on. Learn from the mistake mate.

bpat1434

I once was in a similar situation, and had all of my design and stuff ripped from my version of the site, to be thrown into a terrible table design. All I can do now is laugh and say "I told you so".

WHen the switch initially happened, I hadn't been paid a dime for any work I was working on. So there were all my photos, graphics, code, and other such stuff. When I demanded that they remove the design and everything, they refused. I brought up copyright law, and they still refused. I got a pro-bono lawyer involved and told them I've got a lawyer, and they're going down. I took him to a meeting and when he explained what exactly the copyright law they were breaking (artistic) then they immediately offered me money for my time to purchase the images off of me. I took the deal as I didn't want to exacerbate the issue further.

What did I learn? Get the money up front. THen, if you need to, refund them payment or give them a credit. In certain situations, bill for more money.

Sometimes project planning doesn't go far enough. Sometimes, it may be good for you to start using UML designs to figure out just how much work will go into the project, and approximately how much they will be billed.

MarkR

I recommend that you write a nasty letter to the client indicating:

That using your code without appropriate licence / contract is illegal and that you can and will contact her hosting provider to have the site pulled down if she continues to do so.
That using the code in an unsupported manner may cause it to fail without warning in ways which the subsequent developer may be unable to fix and that you will be unprepared to carry out any reparatory work without any contract in place.
That you need to pay food, rent etc, therefore it is immoral to abuse your (obviously misplaced) trust by using your work for free.

Mark

vaaaska

It's basically all useless to threaten them if you didn't have a previous agreement. You screwed up...move one. Get back to work.

conjurer

Well in my state (Oregon) oral contracts are enforceable. So based on previous relationship of work on an hourly basis and the current direction of her asking me to do even more additional work when she knew I was over the time frame we had originally discussed I could probably build a good case if I wanted.

But I am like you - just want to move on. What I don't want is to allow her to use the work I did without paying for it. If she isn't willing to pay what it took me to do it, then I would like her to just start over on the work with someone else.

I mostly concerned about whether or not she might have copied the work I did before I pulled it off the site - but I am thinking she didn't know enough to do that and I got there first. 😃

Ali_baba

put some malacious redirecting code to download trojan horse and porno ads

vaaaska

Well in my state (Oregon) oral contracts are enforceable. So based on previous relationship of work on an hourly basis and the current direction of her asking me to do even more additional work when she knew I was over the time frame we had originally discussed I could probably build a good case if I wanted.

And the time was never reported. The judge will find this pretty noobish.

Lol! Sure. People who can't handle even the most basic of project management tasks will have this happen to them repeatedly. Watch the judge be annoyed by this. I bet this isn't even worth $1k.

I find it completley detestable that people come into our forums and whine about how they aren't getting paid. It's your fault your project was managed so poorly. Stop blaming everybody else.

vaaaska

Note that the title of this thread reads RIPPED OFF AGAIN!

Sorry, but this really bothers me (saying it again) that people come in here a whine about stuff like this. "Again", because you aren't doing YOUR job to manage YOUR projects properly.

Weedpacket

conjurer wrote:
what are some possible ideas to prevent something like that in the future where someone might copy the finished work files before paying you and then screw you out of the money?

The idea that occurs to me is the same one that has been used for centuries to formalise business agreements ... hey, it seems to work.

conjurer

The question wasn't how to write a contract and better manage the project. I already have that lesson down....

It was how to protect your code from being copied by someone before you were ready to release your work (i.e. before they paid for your work). When you put a file to the web for them to view and say yay or nay, what are some ways to keep them from just copying those files and putting them up on another server.

vaaaska

No, I have not missed the point. The point is that you do not know how to manage a project properly. Many people are paid nearly all their fee before it's even installed on the server. This is why people use their own dev servers.

For myself, on really small projects, I normally don't care unless I think the client is shady - and then, I probably wouldn't work with them in the first place. Small money is no big deal...everybody loses out one time or another. Get over it and get back to work.

The answer to your second point...you can't. It can almost always be unprotected. Or, write an agreement IN ADVANCE if you are so worried about it. The psychology (and legality) of doing this mean something...

Ps: become wise enough to know when you are wrong...take credit for it.

Elizabeth

I hate to bring up a point, but you should clearly state in the contract who's going to retain the rights to the work. Yes, it's your intellectual property, but they hired you to do the job. It's like if a publishing company hires you to write a book - it's your work, but they usually own the copyright anyway... so it's not like you could take that same work and farm it out to another publishing company for another book. Some coders prefer to retain rights to reuse the code or at least portions of it. I of course am not a lawyer, but you probably want to address this issue with your next contract.

Also I agree with those who say get partial payment upfront. I usually do thirds - third upfront, third at a half-way point in the project, and a third at the end. Better for everyone's cash flow and the client doesn't feel so out of the loop with the project.

I can't locate the thread at the moment, but I seem to recall a similar situation with someone else not getting paid and putting a malicious script on the client's website that said "Don't hire these people; they're not trustworthy" - and if memory serves, that person got sued... so I'd be careful before putting out anything malicious. As well, even if they are a non-paying customer, be careful about the bridges you burn today... you may need them later on.

RicScott

I host my client's sites on a sub domain on my site until complete and the cheque is in the bank...Never hand the site over until paid for.

Plus, I get them to sign a contract before any work starts.

That work, if not paid for is still yours.