I want to share my experience with one of my client. I have designed a website for him and upload on his server by believing that he will pay to me after work will be completed. He get a lots of changes from me in the basic design and mailed me continuously during the project. He finally satisfied with the last version of the design and when i uploaded the design on his server he stopped to answer my emails and chats. That site is now using by a reputed college in Europe and when i talked to the owner of the college he told me he has already paid to someone for this design and said that i should talk to that person who was my client actually. Now its more than six months period i don't have any copyrights for the design. Is there any trick or way i can get my money ($250USD) from them. Please suggest.
The best trick is to get paid up front. A bit late in this case, but perhaps useful next time. Another trick is to watermark all images with your logo/site. Again, a bit late this time, but maybe next time...
Well, you might as well talk to the owner of the college again. You can explain to him that his designer never paid you and so that you still own the rights to the design. That he needs to instruct the designer to pay you or you will take further steps to reassert your rights to your work which is being used in an unauthorized manner since it has never been paid for. He can easily apply pressure that perhaps you cannot. I am not really sure why you are in contact with the end client, but since you are and have already spoken to him about this issue. You might as well push him on the topic. He has no right to use stolen work. The fact that he paid for it doesn't matter, since the guy he paid didn't yet own it.