What to do when a publisher does not pay?

Hi, I did some work for www.insight-concepts.com I had a contract the work was completed and the product release.
But now I have not been paid any money and they no longer reply to emails!
I am in the UK and they are based in the USA, what can I do to get my money, anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

Is that the guy who called himself CEO on the rad forums?

As you haven't been paid they have no right to release the product. Get legal aid for free from CAB.

Is the contract fulfilled? You didn't miss anything did you?

How long since the product release?

If they don't pay up what is owing then we shall lesson them - especially since they have a forum to Large.

The insight-concepts server is registered to "Hosting Matters", it hosts just 11 web sites so i'm guessing it's not a major hosting company but a private enterprise server which is probably part of the Insight Concepts "group".

The Domain Name is registered here:
1643 Mallory Street
Jacksonville
FL 32205
US
+1 877 643 1083

They connect to the internet via this company:

Peak 10 Inc
Suite A
8910 Lenox Pointe Drive
Charlotte
NC 29273

I would contact Peak 10 showing all your written evidence of finances outstanding as they may wish to know that they are dealing with a company who are known bad payers.

If this does not cause sufficient pain for the company then what country where you in when you agreed to (prefferably signed a contract) work for them?

If you where in the UK at the time and the contract does not specify a court of juristiction then it is covered by UK law and you can take them to the small claims court (or higher if it's a large amount of money). Under UK law these days the court is selected by the defendant, but it still has to be a court covered by UK juristiction - but be prepared to add a travel claim to the case.

If the contract specifies a non UK court, or you where not in the UK when you agreed to work for them, then your not covered by UK law.

heh, They offered me work a year or so too, but I wasn't happy working for nothing so I have no experience with their reliability. But I do have an email address for one Christopher Bouzy.


Might be the same one you have already?

Actually, what is the product?

Send the lads 'round!

yeah HJ... i think that was the same guy who became a real pain over at the 3DRAD forums...

--Mike

Non-payment is usually considered termination of the contract. Follow the steps outlined in the contract and then send them a letter terminating the contract and release the software yourself - Either for pay or for free and make a webpage describing the situation, the contract, the company and people behind it.


Andy

He tried to convince me to develop something big and complicated for him. In fact, he contacted me several times when I did not apply for the job to ask me why I hadn't applied to get me to apply.

His initial email suggested it could be a paid position, but in a later email he said he usually didn't pay anything but royalties for the first 2-3 projects to make sure you're reliable or something. Unfortunately, I think most of our correspondence was via MSN and was lost, so I don't have any more details.

Anyway in the end I decided not to take the job. I'm pretty sure it was because he refused to pay me anything up front and the job was so big it would have taken several months to develop. This guy claimed to make a ton of money off that encryption program, and I make next to nothing, but even I paid my artist up front. :-)

Oh and if I were in this situation, I would take the product I developed and sell it myself, and inform people on my website that the other guy is selling the product illegally, and that they won't get any support if they buy it through him. I would also contact the guy's ISP and invoke the DMCA to get them to take down his website until he removes the offending content.

I had a couple of emails from them in late 2003/early 2004 asking us to post an ad for Blitz coders (and also one asking for a custom Blitz3D build of some sort). I'd be happy to drop them a polite email pointing to this thread if that might help.

I remember them! Wow this guy contacted everyone and their brother to do that gameshow game didn't they?

Hey, there is a phone number - "puki" puts up his paw to be nomianted as the "phoning-up" person and annoying them all day with utter Largness.

Gameshow game? That's not what he asked me to do. I think he wanted me to code a terrain system/editor for a 3d modeling program he had someone else working on.

Would this be the right time to pimp my professional services then?

;)

Just flood their forums:

http://forum.insight-concepts.com/

Can't beleive this 'publisher steals programmer's work' malarky still goes on. You must be really disappointed.

Download their other 3 programs, crack the 10 day limitation and then release on p2p.

Tempting, but DONT do what kenshin said. Take legal advice.

Yeh.. I was only joking. Two wrongs don't make a right. If it were me, I'd be severely pissed off about it tho....

Yeah - wasnt having a go mate - took it tongue in cheek but he might be angry enough to consider it!

Just release their product for free, based on what people said above.

Bomb Da Bass.

yes.. let's explode a fish!! ;)

.

WOW, thanks for all the responses. I did fullfil my part of the contract, the trouble is I did not create the whole program, it is thier Rhyme & Verse software that I worked on. I wrote the dll's that produce the rhyming words.
My contract states that I will receive the rate of 10% of all total net quarterly sales, I have emails saying they sent a cheque, but I never received it and now they don't respond at all. So I guess I will have to go to the CAB for advise.

Let us know when you want us to start 'bothering' them.

Do that. Hopefully they will give you the number of a lawyer, perhaps one who specialises in international law. You really should seek legal aid, even if you think you can't afford it, because if they don't think they'll get the money back for you they won't take on the case.

Oh, and don't post any more information than you've already given. It may work against the case, even if it's all entirely true. Defamation/libel etc. :)

We should spam their e-mail with questions about this case ;)

That sucks, I worked for a company on contract that did the same. $2000 US a week for custom .net coding and hosting (alot of bandwidth was used), and after several months of working well, they got stupid.

I hope you get this resolved in your favor.

keep all correspondence... multiple copies...

send them a final correspondence and wait a reasonable amount of time...

then sue them in your locality... you don't have to come to the US to do it... they may (most likely) will be required to respond to your law suit... and if they don't you can request an injunction by your government to have their license to do business in the UK suspended until they live up to their legal obligations...

and don't do anything illegal, or anything that may be construed as illegal or causing them any business problems... they can use that against you...

definitely don't do what the fire brigade here recommends :)

--Mike

good luck

Tea has a good point - maybe you should ask for this thread to be deleted, CopperCircle.

nothing that has been posted so far can be deemed defamatory or liable... only prejudicial to his case...

if he has stated the facts without malice, then he is making a public record of the actual events... thast cannot be deem as liable...

... i don't think

--Mike

spray their headquarters with manure.

Thanks again, I will be seeing my Citizens Advise Bureau on Thursday. I have given Insight Concepts plenty of notice informing them that I would seek legal advise, but got no reply as usual. I also do not think I have posted anything here that is libel and certainly nothing untrue.

Please no one flood or spam them, I think that would only work against me, but thanks for the support.

Email is not the way to deal with this. Phone them first of all.

Two words:
Monkey Steals the Peach

Give them a call and say they have 1 week to pay you else you have no other alternative than to take your solicitors advice and take them to court. Take no crap on the phone about "calling you back". Keep inisting you speak to the person who can sort your problem out. Take names for furture reference.

Ask for proof of the cheque they posted.

If they do no pay up, then take them to court.

As you are in the UK and depending on your income then you may be able to get a free solicitor to handle the case. Speak to the Citizens Advice Bureaux.

email; them and tell them you're willing to do
anoither job for them. when they reply you
know they are deliberately ignoring you and
you can em, do legal things better then.

So, any news?

You can put a contract out on him in the United States for $8,000. At that rate, you can't afford not to have him killed.

Report the Co to the Better buisiness Bureau...http://www.bbb.org

put a $8000 bounty on this thief!!!