Seizing a website
Tam Denholm
Perhaps a strange question, but i'm trying to get a non-paying client
to pay, and i think that since hes in a different country hes
basically just going to ignore me. If i take him to small claims
court i'm pretty sure he'll be a no show. I assume if he doesn't show
up i'll get a judgement in my favour by default, i expect since the
client is in another country they'll again, simply ignore it. At this
point, i know i can ask the court to "take further action" i'm just
wondering if a small claims sheriff can grant me some kind of court
order giving me permission to seize the website and domains from the
host and registrar. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
Its worth noting that one of my obstacles is the technical illiteracy
of the court. I've been to small claims court before (went ok that
time) and the sheriff asked me if i had brought my work with me to
show him, i had to explain that what i produce isnt a physical object,
its code. He accepted what i said but didnt understand it, so trying
to explain that i'd like to seize digital assets seems like something
that would be difficult to articulate to a court.
Thanks
Tam
Mark Wallace
I guess route would be to take advantage of the same reason you feel he will ignore you - that he is in another country. I'd personally just take his site down until he pays in full. There isn't much he can do because he hasn't paid you (and I assume you have given him multiple late payment notifications in one way or another) and the fact he's in another country also makes it difficult for him to take action against you. But I guess this depends on how important the site is to him and if you have directly given him the code or not.
For myself, if someone doesn't pay on time I have rules setup in my accounts software (FreeAgent) to send out increasingly severe warnings stating clearly what will happen if they don't pay. Once they're 14 days late I just turn off their site - it's amazing how many people will go out of their way to pay you instantly when their site is offline and it is affecting their business.
As for the domains, it's a bit more difficult because likely they were registered in your client's name (if they weren't they should have been!) so it would be difficult to control them and would suggest not to go there.
Best regards,
Mark
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John Hewson
I doubt that you could obtain control of the domain names, presuming that they're registered in his name.
There may be another way. As the client hasn't paid, his side of the contact hasn't been honoured, so you may well still own the copyright on your work (check your contract). I would be tempted to go after the host with a copyright infringement notice, as they have no incentive not to pay attention to it, and you don't need to involve the court.
Cheers
John