massahwahl
VIP Member
Ive been asking a few questions lately about this website i have built for a local small business and within the last 24 hours that are going to be changing my relationship with them.
Heres the situation:
My brother and a mutual close friend work for this company and have for the last 10 and 15 years respectively. They asked me about redoing their website about 7 years ago as the one they were using was pretty much worthless and didnt benefit them any. Back then, I put together a very primitive website and updated it for them off and on. I did all of this for free because i saw it as a fun project and a way to get some experience running a website and the owners didnt know head from tails what the website was useful for.
Skip ahead to three years ago...
Me and my brother sat down and completely redid the site again and I did A LOT of work on it on my own time as at that time I was told by the business that they didnt see the website as necessary and therefore didnt care to pay someone to work on it (its three old guys who are stuck in the 1950's understanding of how people want to purchase things) although my brother and mutual friend obviously understood the importance of having an online presence. I was finally able to get the owners to pay me $100 for the work I had did for them but never continued updating it without being paid, as a result, it never got updated.
So within the last 6 months I started working at the store part time but my schedule with my full time job recently prevented me from being able to be a worthwhile addition, so I talked to the owners about creating a better functioning website and coming in from a few times a week JUST to work on the site.
So last week I redid the site again however the computer at the store does not have the tools i need to do it effectively so much of the work had to be done from home. I still have been working on the clock while at the store for maybe 4 hours a week, but have put in close to 30 hours of work at home that im not being paid for. I leveraged this in my head by saying I was helping my brother and friend (who were in the process of actually purchasing the business from the previous owners) so i didnt mind doing a majority of the work for free as a way to help them in the future.
Well, as of last night our mutual friend decided that she no longer wants to purchase the business and is taking another job, the ripple effect is now my brother is likely to take a new job too since once the business sells it is unlikely to remain the same type of business.
This now puts me in a position where the work i did is no longer really considered a charity as the people i did it for no longer have a vested interest in seeing the business succeed. For now, im continuing to update it strictly from the store until the time comes that we have a better understanding of whats going to happen.
My question though is this, if the two people i made the site for leave, do i have any grounds to actually ask for compensation for the work i did off the clock?
The business pays for the domain and hosting obviously but who owns the actual content? If I did all the work do i own the content that i created for the site? I am sole manager of the site and the companies facebook page and as mentioned, have been updating them regularly. If my brother and friend leave though, i can almost guarantee that the owners will want nothing to do with me and therefore i intend to take my work with me if legally allowed to do so.
So again, do i own the content or do they?
Heres the situation:
My brother and a mutual close friend work for this company and have for the last 10 and 15 years respectively. They asked me about redoing their website about 7 years ago as the one they were using was pretty much worthless and didnt benefit them any. Back then, I put together a very primitive website and updated it for them off and on. I did all of this for free because i saw it as a fun project and a way to get some experience running a website and the owners didnt know head from tails what the website was useful for.
Skip ahead to three years ago...
Me and my brother sat down and completely redid the site again and I did A LOT of work on it on my own time as at that time I was told by the business that they didnt see the website as necessary and therefore didnt care to pay someone to work on it (its three old guys who are stuck in the 1950's understanding of how people want to purchase things) although my brother and mutual friend obviously understood the importance of having an online presence. I was finally able to get the owners to pay me $100 for the work I had did for them but never continued updating it without being paid, as a result, it never got updated.
So within the last 6 months I started working at the store part time but my schedule with my full time job recently prevented me from being able to be a worthwhile addition, so I talked to the owners about creating a better functioning website and coming in from a few times a week JUST to work on the site.
So last week I redid the site again however the computer at the store does not have the tools i need to do it effectively so much of the work had to be done from home. I still have been working on the clock while at the store for maybe 4 hours a week, but have put in close to 30 hours of work at home that im not being paid for. I leveraged this in my head by saying I was helping my brother and friend (who were in the process of actually purchasing the business from the previous owners) so i didnt mind doing a majority of the work for free as a way to help them in the future.
Well, as of last night our mutual friend decided that she no longer wants to purchase the business and is taking another job, the ripple effect is now my brother is likely to take a new job too since once the business sells it is unlikely to remain the same type of business.
This now puts me in a position where the work i did is no longer really considered a charity as the people i did it for no longer have a vested interest in seeing the business succeed. For now, im continuing to update it strictly from the store until the time comes that we have a better understanding of whats going to happen.
My question though is this, if the two people i made the site for leave, do i have any grounds to actually ask for compensation for the work i did off the clock?
The business pays for the domain and hosting obviously but who owns the actual content? If I did all the work do i own the content that i created for the site? I am sole manager of the site and the companies facebook page and as mentioned, have been updating them regularly. If my brother and friend leave though, i can almost guarantee that the owners will want nothing to do with me and therefore i intend to take my work with me if legally allowed to do so.
So again, do i own the content or do they?
