[kictanet] Software ownership dispute

Wed Feb 18 17:47:19 EAT 2015

Even if you did not sign the documents, they will still be able to table
the documents in court.

Since they paid you some money, i am certain this is what will be used to
make decisions on what to pay you.

I am not sure how you got to do all this work without a signed contract
too. That in itself is a major oversight since you went ahead to build the
engine, deploy it and have it in production.

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 5:21 PM, gisho <gichuhie at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Sure my mind was very techy (all day buried in code). Note that we did not
> sign anything. The contract was what the client sent to me and that's when
> disagreements started.
>
> On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 3:20 PM, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Erastus,
>>
>> Here is what i can get from this dispute:
>>
>> *Business Mind vs Tech Mind*
>> Although you are in business, you handled this engagement with a tech
>> mind. For this, you missed on several critical business points that your
>> client was paying keen attention to. After reviewing your documentation,
>> all indications are that the PataPawa engine was indeed documentally owned
>> by the client. There is lots of lines in these documents that easily mean
>> that you were a hired developer than a partner to provide the technology
>> platform.
>>
>> Although you were hoping that the revenue share line is most important
>> because it made you a partner, it is in many way contradicted by other
>> clauses. You conceived a smart business model when you thought about
>> revenue share but you did not secure it in this documents effectively.
>>
>> *Kenyan Courts*
>> Let me warn you that the Kenyan courts easily fair as corridors of
>> injustice. Take up this process with an open mind and be even prepared to
>> loose more. I talk from experience. Many interpretations of the law and
>> proceedings will baffle you. Don't forget the parallel process called
>> corruption in the judiciary. If you have been watching a few interesting
>> movies or series, there nothing like it in our courts. And this after the
>> famous new chief justice reforms. So, don't go there very hopeful but be
>> prepared for anything.
>>
>> *Take the Lesson*
>> If your client is willing to resolve this dispute out of court, perhaps
>> by completing the BOT agreement that was still in draft, give it a thought.
>> It may give you a chance to go on with your business. This is a civil
>> matter and i don't see any jail issues. You can apologise to the court and
>> judge and you can be heard about the contempt of court issue too. Don't be
>> afraid to defend your freedom to go back to your work. But if you are ready
>> to go full throttle, knock yourself out.
>>
>> To answer your question on who we think owns the software, most of what
>> you have shared indicate you were a consultant software developer. I did
>> not see anything indicating that the copyright was to reside with you. In
>> fact, clause 6 of the contract has every indication that the software
>> belongs to the client.
>>
>> With this, i doubt you will be able to release this under GPL or MIT
>> licence any time soon.
>>
>> I really hope that this case teaches many software devs to be more
>> proactive on the business side. It easy to take up a contract and begin
>> work but it is very painful when the ending turns out this upsetting.
>>
>> Best wishes Erastus!
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 12:24 AM, gisho via kictanet <
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear listers,
>>>
>>> (Sorry for cross posting)
>>>
>>>
>>> I have an ongoing case against me on regards to a software i developed
>>> for a client called Ceven ltd on year 2013.
>>>
>>> After I resigned from employment at March 2013, I stated doing my own
>>> projects and thats when the then general manager of Ceven pointed out to me
>>> that they were in need of a better and more efficient system for vending
>>> prepaid electricity tokens.  Working at home, i worked for a month and a
>>> half and presented my demo on April 2013. The demo was received well and
>>> they gave me the go ahead to finalize the bits that were still rough. The
>>> demo included interfaces for vendor management, virtual float management,
>>> billing and a J2ME app for Nokia phones that would dispense a receipt via a
>>> bluetooth printer.  On April 15th 2013 I installed the application to their
>>> hardware for a live test. After a thorough test we decided to host the
>>> server at Access Kenya data center at Baclys Plaza on mid May 2013 and
>>> continued to push live transactions via the app.
>>>
>>> I used a publicly available Ipay API that was then available here:
>>> https://gforge.bizswitch.net/docman/view.php/9/34/Ipay-prepaidElecTransactionSpec.pdf
>>> the API is no longer available form that site but can still be found by
>>> just googling for it. The API enabled me to create a client to connect to
>>> KPLC prepaid systems.
>>>
>>> <https://gforge.bizswitch.net/docman/view.php/9/34/Ipay-prepaidElecTransactionSpec.pdf>
>>>
>>> We discussed on payments that i was to take 20% of the net revenue share
>>> less all technological related expenses which includes the hosting charges
>>> for the server.
>>>
>>> I got my first pay on September 2013 after settling all expenses that
>>> were to be billed on me over that time.
>>>
>>> All this time I was still upgrading the app to accommodate new requests
>>> from the client and the vendors.
>>>
>>> On June 2014, the client sent me the attached draft contract with a 2013
>>> date and claimed that Ceven ltd owned my application.As at this time the
>>> business had grown big and was known far and wide. The contract was
>>> contrary to what i expected and I began to seek legal help and thats when I
>>> registered a company and also obtained a copyright certificate from Kenya
>>> Copyright Board. I did not sign the contract as I felt it was unfair on my
>>> side.
>>>
>>> On August 2014 I moved my application from the client's hardware to a
>>> cloud server and then to my server on October 2014 which was co-located at
>>> the same place - Access Kenya data center at Baclays plaza.
>>>
>>> On October 2014 the client indicated that they were interested in
>>> acquiring the application and we started negotiations for the same. We all
>>> agreed that we were to find a party that would do a fair market valuation
>>> of the software application independently. Attached was our draft MOU that
>>> would see us through the process of this sale.
>>>
>>> From August 2014 the client started failing to pay the agreed amounts up
>>> to November 2014 and whenever I would demand for payments they would urge
>>> me to sign the contract. On start of December 2014, my lawyer went ahead
>>> and wrote a negotiation agreement that required them to pay the arrears and
>>> payment terms for the negotiation period which they never signed. At all
>>> this time I would pay for the service expenses with my money and it was
>>> inevitable that if the client did not pay for the service i would shutdown
>>> the server.
>>>
>>> On December 16th 2014, the client was issued a court order that barred
>>> me from accesing my server or the clients server at Access Kenya either
>>> physically or remotely. It also said that I should surrender administrative
>>> passwords to them. They went ahead and shutdown my server where the
>>> application was running and that was it... business closed! Later on the
>>> faithful monit would send me emails of attempted power cycles on the
>>> server. I still don't know what was happening at the server during those
>>> times but thats a story for another day.
>>>
>>>
>>> I was out of Nairobi on December 2014 and I came back on January 2015
>>> when I was served with the court order. I declined to give out any
>>> passwords as that would get my software copied. Upon reading the court
>>> application document, the client now says that they fully owns the software
>>> despite them not providing any prove of ownership. They also claim that I
>>> acquired my copyright certificate fraudulently. The software was running
>>> under brand "Pata Pawa" which is owned by the client.
>>>
>>> We are now in court and hearing is on February 11 2015 (which is today)
>>> at High Court of Kenya Nairobi - Commercial and Admiralty Division.
>>>
>>> In this case, who legally owns the software?
>>>
>>> In case of any clarifications feel free to contact me.
>>>
>>> If I win this case, I will release the code under GPL or MIT license.
>>> Maybe someone will learn something from it. If I don't, I'll likely rot in
>>> Jail for contempt of court which the judge said might be higher for me.
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Erastus
>>> +254716165716
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Muthoni
>>
>> My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
>> --------------------------------------------
>> Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
>>
>> First they ignore you,
>> Then they laugh at you,
>> Then they fight you,
>> AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
>>
>
>

-- 
Muthoni

My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
--------------------------------------------
Mahatma Gandhi once said:-

First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they fight you,
AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
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