4 things to do when your web developer holds you hostage

A friend of mine recently came to me for help.

He entered into a contract with an acquaintance for roughly the following:

producing videos on a monthly basis of him explaining what he does and how he helps people
– building, hosting, and maintaining a new (second) website for me (he owns the URL)
– onsite and offsite SEO for this new website
– posting content to his Facebook page
– hosting his emails
– creating a new YouTube channel specific to his new website
– publishing his videos to his two YouTube channels (and evidently to other video networks that he has never seen)

He continued past his 1-year agreement because some of the videos had gotten really good engagement on YouTube and Facebook. But after he recalculated his growth in the 2nd year, he found that the return on investment was not enough to continue with their service package, so he requested a cancellation.

The response he got was that the company owns all of the “creative works” of his brand and his “brand profile” including:
– all the videos that were created for him
– his new website (though he owns the domain)
– the new YouTube channel that was created
– and any other created content

Here’s my advice:

You have a hostage situation, which is a common ploy by unscrupulous web developers.  The other ploy is to lock you out of access, too.

I’m not a lawyer, but we have seen this happen a lot.  

• First, make sure you have all the assets downloaded in a folder you control.  We can help you do that if necessary.
• Second, ask him how much he wants for the rights to use your assets. If it’s under $1,000, then just pay it, even though you may be right– just to be done. People who do trades (services for services) are either close friends or broke.
• Third, since you’ve already paid him, please share the contract with us to review. We can determine the scope of work and fair market value. It may be that we can just re-create the videos and even do better. Then no hassle and we’re done.
• Fourth, have a lawyer write a demand letter– they will say tortious interference or something– and that usually works, scaring them. It would cost $100 to $150.

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

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