A couple of thoughts:
Our contract for clients requires at least partial payment before the site
goes live; we do this for a variety of reasons, including ensuring we
recoup at least expenses if something goes awry and we would have litigate
for the rest.
Our contract gives the client outright ownership of all HTML and text they
deliver to us or we create for them; we have explicit and complete
ownership of all programming, our equipment, etc., etc. So the client might
be justified in taking all their material.
However, if you have a contract, and you can demonstrate that you were
living up to schedules and services, you will have an open and shut case to
sue for outstanding fees.
We specify that clients need to give us 60 days written notice to terminate
the contract (this varies from client to client), so even if one of ours
pulled something like the above, we would attempt to collect outstanding
development fees and the first two months of service fees at the very
minimum. Possibly more, since you could demonstrate bad faith on the part
of the client.
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--
Glenn Fleishman * Point of Presence Company, Seattle, WA &lt;<a href="<a href="http://www.popco.com">http://www.popco.com</a>">http://www.popco.com</a>&gt;
Contributing Editor &amp; columnist, Adobe Magazine
Freelance writer, InfoWorld, Seattle Times, React magazine
Moderator, Internet Marketing Discussion list &lt;im-sub@popco.com&gt;
Web Talk for Wireheads columnist for Web Developer magazine
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