4 ms·

All things considered, while this is certainly might feel satisfying, it's a rather irresponsible move on the developer's part. Not only would this sort of beha

All things considered, while this is certainly might feel satisfying, it's a rather irresponsible move on the developer's part. Not only would this sort of behavior turn off future clients (shows that the developer is vindictive and unprofessional), but the dev is almost certainly legally exposed. IANAL, but it would be trivial for the client to show in court that the dev's actions led to quantifiable damages to their business, and might even be open to criminal prosecution. The correct way to resolve this depends on the contract the dev signed in the first place. If the dev retains IP under the contract, they may be able to take the website down, or revert it to a previous state. If not, I'm not totally sure. Certainly the dev should refuse to perform any work for the client, and probably should solicit legal advice (relatively inexpensive to take a client to small claims court).

gmemstr 9y ago
Recently on reddit I answered a question on the /r/webdev subreddit asking about backdoors in websites in case the client doesn't pay[1]. Sometimes webdevs don't quite understand how to deal with clients who don't pay, and the real answer is get a legally binding contract. Most other devs I know don't bother with this though, and leads to some frustrations on their part. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7u5965/how_to_add_backdoor_to_client_websites/ https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7u5965/how_to_add_b...
philipodonnell 9y ago
What if you had in your terms that the website had to utilize your proprietary javascript injected analytics package until the balance was paid in full? That way you could inject a "didn't pay" popup similar to NYT when you run out of articles. The client could always edit the code to remove it themselves, of course, but they may not have the skills and if they hire another web developer they'll know they didn't pay the previous one.
yuhong 9y ago
I wonder what if the client sued and then the developer counter-sue for the breach of contract.

gmemstr 9y ago

Recently on reddit I answered a question on the /r/webdev subreddit asking about backdoors in websites in case the client doesn't pay[1]. Sometimes webdevs don't quite understand how to deal with clients who don't pay, and the real answer is get a legally binding contract. Most other devs I know don't bother with this though, and leads to some frustrations on their part. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7u5965/how_to_add_backdoor_to_client_websites/ https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/7u5965/how_to_add_b...

philipodonnell 9y ago

What if you had in your terms that the website had to utilize your proprietary javascript injected analytics package until the balance was paid in full? That way you could inject a "didn't pay" popup similar to NYT when you run out of articles. The client could always edit the code to remove it themselves, of course, but they may not have the skills and if they hire another web developer they'll know they didn't pay the previous one.

yuhong 9y ago

I wonder what if the client sued and then the developer counter-sue for the breach of contract.