Ownership of Code (From the Courts' Perspective) (Score 1)

Actually, Company X does have a small legal leg to stand on. When you, as Company Y, hire Company X to build your website you purchase a website. NOT the source code. The courts have continuously upheld that the source code belongs to the company that wrote it, in this case Company X, unless otherwise defined by contract. So when you write a piece of code (in this case HTML) for somebody else under a contract situation, unless you specifically sign over the rights to the source code you own it. Also, if the company that hired you did not pay Company X for their work, then you've got a whole different issue to contend with -- you're using "software" (i.e. the website they worked on) without purchasing it from them. Now, should Company X be suing you? Probably not. If they are truly interested in a lawsuit instead of a piss-fight, they should be suing the company that hired them then hired you. After all, where did you get the code from to begin with? Company X or the company that hired you to finish the website?