Re:Copyright Law (Score 1)

well yes and no on the copyright thing...standard disclaimers, i'm not a lawyer, yada yada, go and hire yourself one, yada yada...

but...

my understanding of it as (as a web developer) that there is "work for hire" where someone essentially works as an employee of a company and produces the work which belongs to the company who hired the coders, etc. , under the agreement, and then there's all other work, which is automatically copyrighted to the creator at the creation.

first things first. end their rights to beta-test immediately. if you don't have a beta testing contract, get one and send it out to all your testers with the requirement that they agree to it in order to have rights to continue beta testing.

and get a lawyer to write them a nasty letter. while it costs you something to do and i don't believe they have a legal leg to stand on, it's got to be worth it for your piece of mind. and let's face it--if their arguement was worth diddly, everyone who ever complained about windows would be getting a piece of the pie...

speaking of which, where's my check, bill?