Where do I stand?

[yawner]

I maintain and host a site (created by me years ago) for a customer who is a car dealer. The code has always been littered with my copyright, as has an extra piece of PHP/MySQL I created to allow them to advertise their used car range.

This afternoon, I get this:

We have been pressured by suppliers to change our website to a more corporate image.
Would you kindly forward to me the login password for the domain and where hosted.

Somewhat pissed off I reply:

1. I am happy to transfer the domain wherever you want. I am sure your new website provider has his/her own preferred hosting company where they host their own sites. Any images or text can be transferred  without access to the webspace.
 
2. Providing access to the current webspace isn`t an option. This is webspace I operate on behalf of a number of my customers as well as you.
 
3. Presumably if you have to adhere to a new 'corporate image' there is no reason for anyone to need access to the current webspace as an entirely new site will be created.
 
4. NB - our code which operates the Used Car Update Facility is copyright, and non-transferable as explained in our original quotation.

Am I within my rights to stick to this, or does he have right of access to the existing webspace? 

cheers folks.

[Jeewhizz]

You are fine where you are standing atm. So long as point number 4 is true

[chavalier]

I bet they will design it using CSS

[rutty]

I bet they will design it using CSS

Or Frames

[suedenem]

4. NB - our code which operates the Used Car Update Facility is copyright, and non-transferable as explained in our original quotation.

Hmm.  The client may argue that ownership of the code is not being transferred, and technically it isn't - you developed it for them and they aren't attempting to sub-license it to any other party.

The law generally allows the client (which would include any sub-contractors they choose to work with) a right to repair and upgrade the software in line with the requirements of the company, unless you've explicitly agreed otherwise.

Again, the generalisation is that by taking payment you are granting them a non-exclusive, royalty free and irrevocable license to use your work.  If they tried to resell then you'd have a legitimate case, but I can't see how they are doing so.

IANAL, but you might want to consult one if things start getting messy.  Unless of course you think pursuing it is more trouble than it's worth, which is unfortunately often the case with things like this

[yawner]

Update

The domain has now been transferred so they didn't get my code.

So I win.

Err, sort of.