It's not that simple. A UK contractor was prosecuted many years ago for putting a time bomb in software he wrote and was never paid for. It remained his softw

It's not that simple. A UK contractor was prosecuted many years ago for putting a time bomb in software he wrote and was never paid for. It remained his software but it was running on their computer. When it ceased to function that was considered to be an authorised change to their system under the computer misuse act. And he was found guilty of a criminal offence. Websites are a bit more of a grey area. Whose server is it? Who's paying for it? Who owns the domain? Whatever the answer to these questions, it's not clear how a judge would decide it. Bottom line: unless your contract makes very clear that your software/website/whatever will cease to function on a particular date you could be looking at time in prison.