Hi,

 

The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).....

 

We have a bit of a pesky problem with a web design company "Upperty Web Design" we used a while back to design a site for us...

 

We also have a self employed web designer on the books and when we gave him the task of moving the site to our new server, he changed the footer link from linking to their domain to his company, "Bobs Web Design". We didn't mind as it's no skin off our nose either way, and he is heavily involved with our main sites.

 

Just to clarify, he didn't do it to claim Bobs Web Design created the site, it was purely for SEO purposes.

 

 

Skip forward a couple of months and someone from Upperty Web Design contacts us saying,

 

It has been brought to our attention that sites which we designed, built and developed are being
'passed off' as being designed and developed by [bobs Web Design]...

 

At the bottom it clearly states 'Web Design by [bobs Web Design]' - with links to it.

 

This is a clear infringement of our intellectual and commercial property rights by
you .We would request you remove this with immediate effect.

 

Please remove all these links with in the next 48 hours.

 

Failure to do so will result in immediate legal action by our solicitors along with the
associated costs.

 

No further warning will be given.

 

 

So, where do we stand on this "infringement" ?

 

I would remove the link and place theirs on purely for the fact it looks like "bob" designed the site.

If its for SEO maybe put something like this

"Website designed by Upperty Web Design and maintained by Bobs web design"

Edited September 3, 201312 yr by D4Y0

If the site says X designed it when X didn't, and links to X giving X credit for the work and an SEO benefit.... surely it's copyright fraud.

It doesn't say "Bob Designed this site".

 

It says, "Web Design by Bob"

 

That's the thing.

 

 

@DY40, If Upperty Web Design had been more human about it, just saying it looks like Bob is claiming he designed the site, could you change the wording... Then yea, no problem, will do. But he gets all DO IT OR WE'LL SUE YOU on us!

"Web design by bob" still makes it look like he designed it.

 

And when you reply to them saying that you are changing it i would tell them that they have crap customer service and you will not be using them again (if you wont be using them again) i agree they went a bit OTT.

Yeah your reasoning isn't going to work, it might not literally say he designed it, but contextually it does. Stop trying to worm out of it and remove the links and false credit before you get in trouble

 

However, I do agree that they were a bit heavy-handed (48 hours until legal action.. haha) but as a professional they have to be serious about it. Based on your opinion of the links not claiming credit, if they'd sent you a chummy message saying they didn't like the wording you'd have disagreed. Even with the heavy wording you had to come here and get another opinion

If the site says X designed it when X didn't, and links to X giving X credit for the work and an SEO benefit.... surely it's copyright fraud.

 

This would be my view.

If your guy has absolutely nothing to do with the original design or development of said website(s), then you simply cannot, legally, place any advertising (yes a footer link crediting the author is advertising) on the site that may be misinterpreted.

 

The other company are quite within their rights to ask you to remove the links, although you do not have to place theirs back on (unless the contract states so).

 

Footer links crediting the author don't offer a huge amount of SEO benefit anyway, it is more a visual thing for visitors to see who designed it.

 

As mentioned above, you can simply place a link along the lines of 'website maintenance by bob', or similar. I have done this on the few templates I have used. I always leave credit to the theme developer, but drop in a link saying 'additional development by roothost' or 'website maintenance by roothost' if I can justify it.

 

It's not worth the hassle in P****** them off tbh, you are in the wrong so just accept it and move forward.