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Legal ownership after service carried out!

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  • 09-01-2012 2:48pm
    #1
    cbireland
    Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭


    Hi,

    I had a website developed a few years ago and decided to move away from the original developers and have another company manage things.

    The original developers sent me all the back up files but when we went to transfer the website to a new server, we realised that some files were missing.

    We then requested that the full source code be sent to us, which it was, but there are still files missing. Basically the internal pages of the website will not work.

    The developers have said that they do not have the files and we will need to create them again. This would mean weeks of development work which would cost me thousands of Euro.

    I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with this and if there is a legal requirement for the original developers to hand over every file. If they don't have them, then it means they did not back them up properly themselves. If they don't play ball, can I sue them?

    If I don't get this sorted, the business could be gone. The website is the business.


Comments

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    #2
    Paulw
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 13,381 Mod ✭✭✭✭Paulw


    Can you not pull all the files directly from the live website?


  • Options
    #3
    cbireland
    Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭cbireland


    Hi Paulw,

    The problem is that when the server transfer took place, the original developers deleted the website from their server so that we could put it live on the new server.

    However, they did send us all the files and database for the website so that we could make the transfer. The problem seems to be that the files were incomplete. There are a lot of files missing and the developers say they don't have them.

    The website that is live now only has the homepage working. Even at that, there are parts missing. The internal pages don't work at all.


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    #4
    tricky D
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,700 ✭✭✭tricky D


    What does your contract say about Intellectual Property deliverables? If you don't have a contract or the contract doesn't specify anything, they retain the rights to source resources by default. That you requested source code so long after the initial website would suggest that they aren't obliged to hand them over.

    However, as Paulw alludes to, I'd be surprised if all the stuff you need isn't on the current site.


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