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We sell a software library and get exactly the same thing. When the payment is late enough I email them and say "your license is revoked". The person/people I'

We sell a software library and get exactly the same thing. When the payment is late enough I email them and say "your license is revoked". The person/people I'm emailing never ever know that there's absolutely nothing we can do at a technical level to stop the component working. They say "oh my, please please enable it". Well, if you pay, sure. Payment comes as fast as is humanly possible. In the case of design, my assumption (correct me if you've tried it and it doesn't work) is to retain copyright of the material until full payment is made. Prior to that point, you license them to use the stuff and only assign copyright when you have all the cash.

pixxel 13y ago
Yes copyright is assigned on final payment. I was a bit naive back then :)
bdcravens 13y ago
Clever - I'd never considered the copyright approach. If they don't pay, you then have legitimate claim for a DMCA take-down.
- davidjgraph 13y ago
  Copyright law is fairly standard at an international level, DMCA is US specific, it's a layer on top of copyright law and isn't actually necessary in the majority of cases. If you use a copyrighted material in a manner you're not licensed to do, you are committing copyright theft in most countries you'd do business with, and that is the legal infringement that would form your case.
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    True - just replace "DCMA take down notice" with "remedies for violating copyright".
walexander 13y ago
> there's absolutely nothing we can do at a technical level to stop the component working My solution, which I'm not particularly proud of, but have found necessary, is to ensure it's possible to stop the component from working until I've received payment. Typically, I do this by having an obfuscated statement embedded somewhere in the client's code which does a quick phone home to my web server. When they pay, I remove it. I've never had to wait more than an hour after pulling the kill switch to get a response.

pixxel 13y ago

Yes copyright is assigned on final payment. I was a bit naive back then :)

bdcravens 13y ago

Clever - I'd never considered the copyright approach. If they don't pay, you then have legitimate claim for a DMCA take-down.

davidjgraph 13y ago
Copyright law is fairly standard at an international level, DMCA is US specific, it's a layer on top of copyright law and isn't actually necessary in the majority of cases. If you use a copyrighted material in a manner you're not licensed to do, you are committing copyright theft in most countries you'd do business with, and that is the legal infringement that would form your case.
- bdcravens 13y ago
  True - just replace "DCMA take down notice" with "remedies for violating copyright".

walexander 13y ago

> there's absolutely nothing we can do at a technical level to stop the component working My solution, which I'm not particularly proud of, but have found necessary, is to ensure it's possible to stop the component from working until I've received payment. Typically, I do this by having an obfuscated statement embedded somewhere in the client's code which does a quick phone home to my web server. When they pay, I remove it. I've never had to wait more than an hour after pulling the kill switch to get a response.