[thelist] legal questions

[Brian Cummiskey]

Hi everyone.  Hope 2004 is doing well for you all so far.

I happened to go to an old client's site to see if anything was changed, 
and to my suprise, there was an entire new layout from a different firm 
or individual.  However, a lot of my old content and database structure 
were re-used, simply plugged into the new template so to speak.

Now, I'm not sue-happy or anything like that...  I did the site as a 
favor for a friend of a friend for cheap on a very short time frame.  It 
was almost ineveitble that it would be replaced with something more 
"professional".  I'm curious, however, as to what is the legal aspect of 
this.

Since I was paid for the project, and thus all content technically 
becomes the .com's property, technically, they are free to re-use what i 
made and plug it into the new template.  However, in return for doing 
the site for cheap, I was allowed to put a "built by me" link at the 
bottom.  It is now removed, as technically, i didn't build it.

My point is that I'm not trying to sue the guys...  Mainly, I want to 
use the site in my portfolio.  Since technically, 80% of the site is 
still MY coding, but looks totally different that what i developed for 
them, where do I stand?

How do I credit myself for the project?

Is referring to an archive.org link to the OLD version of the site (if 
it was even archived) considered acceptible in your eyes for a 
portfolio?  Does it scream "you suck, that's why they hired someone else 
to fix your mess"?

Thoughts?

-Brian