Hi, I am desperately hoping somebody here can help me out. This is a bit of a torrid tale, so please bear with me... I got a call from a potential client on Monday. He currently hosts his site with a small UK hosting and development firm. He told me that he has paid for a number of features on his site which have never been implemented, plus he has about 20 major bugs which again have not been fixed in the last 15 months. He was ringing me to get a quote to fix these issues. No problem....so as we go through the bugs, I asked him if he was happy to give me ftp access to his server so that I could see the exact files in question to provide an accurate quotation. This is where alarm bells started to ring. The client has at no point had ftp or control panel access to his own website. Nor can he access his database or even make a backup of it (the software he is using has a native backup feature within its admin panel which the hosts had disabled, along with about 90% of all the other controls in his admin panel). So, I mention to him that that is a little out of order, and enquire about how much he has paid for the work on his site. He told me, and it was roughly 10 times what I would have quoted, and I am by no means cheap. So, after some lengthy discussions, the potential client decides that he actually wants to switch webhosts and have a brand new site developed - would I quote. So I provide a detailed quotation, and add in the proviso regarding getting a database backup (his products, customers and orders) along with his design files and his product images. He then says that he attempted to get this information before and the host demanded extortionate payment to provide it to him.... So he rang his host, stated that he wished to cancel his subscription effective 31st January and wanted a price for getting his own intellectual property (the database and images, as I informed him, under UK law are considered his Intellectual property). I also called the host on the phone to explain that the software they are touting as proprietary and coded by themselves is actually open source code (and about 6 years out of date), that I am not as dumb as they would like me to be and could they please assist by providing a realistsic price to get things moving and resolve this smoothly. All of this was discussed in polite, conversational terms. So anyway, today my client gets an email reply from the host. This is where I am looking for advice. Firstly, they state that although he pays monthly for hosting, they would like the remainder of his annual hosting paid - at £975 per year no less! (This is for shared hosting with no ftp or server access of any kind). Secondly, they will create a database dump for him and put it on CD and post it to him, at a cost of £185. This work would probably take around 10 minutes to a completely inept person. As webhosts, they should be able to do it quicker. Thirdly, his domain names will NOT be transferred to him unless all above bills are paid, plus an additional £50 for the release of the tags. The names are registered to his name, but at their address. Fourthly, they wish to be paid a termination fee, in addition to all of the above, and before ALL bills are paid in full they will neither release his domains nor provide any data or imagery. Now I already know for a fact that they have breached copyright law by claiming ownership and authorship of Open Source software, but thats beside the point here. What they are doing is ethically and morally bankrupt, but does my client have any legal recourse to force them to return HIS data and files to him. I have offered to do all of the work, but they point blank refuse to allow any ftp access as this would "endanger the safety of their other clients files" - they seem to not know how to setup an ftp account with access to only one folder. They also dont seem to know how to click three buttons to change administrative permission within the websites software so the client can make his own backup. In short, with the correct permissions in his admin panel and an ftp account, all of this could be done by me in under 2 hours. They want paying over £1000 to do it. The client, his existing host and myself are all in England....any advice? Oh, and I have deliberately not used exact domains or company names...if you need them to advise correctly, please send me a PM. I will need to know why you want the information though - I have no intention of landing myself a libel case lol.
As all Partys are in the uk and the database and images are his Intellectual property He should be able to go to the small claims court and get a court injunction demanding the release of his files and domain name seing as they are his Intellectual property.
Best is to talk reason with the host as litigation in UK isn't exactly the thing you will be hoping for. The fees will be crazy. If that fails maybe you can go small claims for help. But in the meantime try to upload whatever images etc that is on the Internet (I think there are a few software that can download the entire sites). Lastly at £1000, won't it be cheaper to do from scratch?
thanks for the pointers...i have already tried talking reasonably to the host, and they believe that they are being very fair...no really, somehow they truly do believe it, so no dice there. Would it be cheaper to start again? Well, in many ways thats what my client is trying to do, but he does want his customer database, historical orders and the manually typed descriptions and manually edited images for over 19,000 products.....so he really DOES need his own Intellectual property. I will recommend the small claims court route, see if that helps. I have also advised him to speak to his local trading standards office on Monday, as I am pretty sure this is unfair trading or restrictive trading practises, and I know trading standards officers have a lot of "instant" power.... Thanks for the pointers though...this is a nightmare I have never faced in 5 years of migrating peopels websites...and hopefully never will again.
as i live in the uk but i live in ireland (north of ireland) so i don't know if it be the same as in england, i would get on to trading standards i dont know if am right here so correct me if am wrong. If nothing is done about it then i would get in touch with a lawer to start action against them in small court.
I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but in the US you could also ask for the fees for the lawyer as well. and if you won, you would most likely get them.