What can i do if my website designer goes bust?

[helpmegrow]

Hi all,

I've been talking to a customer who has raised the question of what would i do if my website designer who hosts my website goes bust. I have never really thought about it and presumed that i own my site but it seems from some investigation that i may not own the source codes and may be in a pickle if my website company went bump.

Has anyone had this experiance?
What are my options?

Any suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks
DC

 

[TheSocialMedia1]

Suggest you speak to someone who has knowledge of "intellectual copyrights". Normally if the website is subject to copyright it will display it on the footer of the page

 

[fisicx]

Not true. You don't have to display anything, it's always copyright to somebody.

If the designer has transferred the copyright to you then you own it. If they haven't then they own it. Note also that the images may well have a separate copyright as could any scripts they use on the site. In fact the only thing you might actually own is the materiel you provided for inclusion on the site.

If they go bust and you don't have a back up then it's bye-bye website

 

[SBOnline]

Always get everything signed over to you from a copyright perspective in order to avoid this sort of problem.

I also recommend keeping copies of your website files and asking for usernames and passwords for FTP access.

Make sure you are the registrant of your domain name as well.

These are just a few things that will help should the event arise, but as the post above says, potentially the website could be lost.

 

[Paul Murray]

Grab a complete back up of the site now just in case things do fall through (this includes an SQL dump if you're using a CMS such as Wordpress or Joomla).

 

[UKSBD]

1st thing I do if anyone asks me to help with a website is ask who domain is registered to, who is in contact details, who controls tag, who has FTP rights.

If not all in 100% their control I suggest they set up a 123-reg account in their name, ensure they have total control, and for the sake of £30 a year take out some back-up hosting and load the site on it.

If anthing drastic happens they then just swap the nameservers.

It doen't really answer your question about ownership of source code, copyright, etc. but does give protection if the person currently controlling the site causes any problems.

 

[Faevilangel]

1) Make backup of site
2) Make sure site domain is in your name and your control
3) Move website to a host of your choice, in your name

Now if the developer goes awol, then you won't have any issues, the above shouldn't cost a lot (£50 max) but you will have peace of mind.

 

[playboy_bunnie]

You would have to check your contract with the web designer / developer.

1) Did you / do you own the domain and pay for it when due?
1. a) If they pay/paid for it and didnt recoup the costs, that domain might belong to them (and vica versa).

2) Did you / do you pay for hosting and pay for it when its due?
2. b) Some may not offer FTP access, if they have other clients websites on the same server (for obvious privacy and data protection reasons), although a secure FTP might be possible to set up if you want access.
2. c) Again, depends on how it is currently structured?

3) Some companies set up the websites it a way such that the "design" or that specific layout is copyright to you upon payment, anything you provide i.e. logo, body copy, photographs are copyright to you. Stock photography / graphics are copyright the original creators. Then the code-side of it is copyright to the web developer, with a licence to you to use it.

Most code used to build websites, is from scratch, but some scripts like jQuery aren't copyright to the web developer but the person who orginally wrote that script, are Open Source, have their own licences for usage, etc.

So you cant really take a whole website and say it belongs to you; depends what your agreement was in the first place? :|

 

[Alan R Price]

You do need to establish who owns the intellectual property rights because they may belong to the web designer and if it goes bust the liquidator might have the right to sell them on to a third party, in which case it would be illegal for you to copy the website onto a new domain. The situation is similar to where artwork is produced by a printer for a client - sometimes it belongs to the client, sometimes to the customer.

If you have written terms and conditions, these might well cover it. If they do not, you should write and seek to clarify the position. And of course it would be sensible to have a complete back-up of the site . . . just in case

 

[chip_y2kuk]

if they have never given you a copy of your website and any relevant databases and they went bump (and by that i mean dissappeared) you would be in a serious pickle!

once the server invoices became due the server would be shutdown
you'd need to have your domain pushed to another account to regain control of it (can be more difficult than it sounds)

joe

Hi all,

I've been talking to a customer who has raised the question of what would i do if my website designer who hosts my website goes bust. I have never really thought about it and presumed that i own my site but it seems from some investigation that i may not own the source codes and may be in a pickle if my website company went bump.

Has anyone had this experiance?
What are my options?

Any suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks
DC

 

[garlex]

Surely the first thing you need to do is to simply ask the question in the first instance.
Absolutely no point in any speculation until you establish the facts. Once you find out, thats the time to make drastic decisions, IF YOU NEED TO that is! :|

Hi all,

I've been talking to a customer who has raised the question of what would i do if my website designer who hosts my website goes bust. I have never really thought about it and presumed that i own my site but it seems from some investigation that i may not own the source codes and may be in a pickle if my website company went bump.

Has anyone had this experiance?
What are my options?

Any suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks
DC

 

[BudgetSEO]

Make sure the hosting account is under your control, even if the web designer were to run away you can sleep peacefully.