Contractor Dilemmas - Moral and Financial Obligations?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "This is a true story, one that I am currently trying to resolve and wondered if the Slashdot community could offer any help. I've been developing a new application for a startup company, contracted on a daily basis for my services. I've been providing services for 5 weeks now, and am still trying to get payment for work completed during week 1. The company is refusing to pay me, stating that they are not happy with progress, however all of the milestones we agreed upon for that week have been met. Now, it gets interesting: I know that this company is seeking startup venture capital, and I know from whom. Yes, it would be malicious to contact this party with the information that I have, but am I morally obliged to? If you were set to pump several million into a company with loose moral fibre would you not appreciate a warning?"

Comments

conflicting forces

[n9hmg]

A: You are right to warn the investor, but
B:You will give yourself a difficult reputation to carry through a career.

Now, if you have a personal contact within the investor company, you can slip it in that way, but it still probably won't gain you much.
Perhaps you can use your knowledge for .... oh, how can I say this, blackmail? No, that's such an ugly word... How about extortion?

Re:conflicting forces

[n9hmg]

I have to ammend my comment a bit...
You say you're at week 5, trying to get paid for week 1, and you have the agreed-upon milestones finished for week 1. What about weeks 2 through 4?
While you may have the employer contracturally, if you're only 20-25% as far along as you should be, he's got to be getting nervous and regretting hiring you.
If, in fact, you've completed up to maybe week 3 (or especially 4), that's not far behind, and he's purely a scumbag, probably short on VC because of poor management, and trying to stretch to his own milestones to get more VC.

You need the VC as well as them.

[WasterDave]

They probably don't have the money. You can be as pissed off as you like about it, but that won't help you get paid. Ditto bitching to the VC's - won't put money in your pocket.

I suggest you have a little chat with them along the following lines:

1, You've not paid me, I'm a bit pissed off.
2, But fundamentally I like you guys, I like working here, what we are doing has value and I hope to have a long and prosperous working relationship.
3, So can we be honest about this - if you've not got the money to pay me right now, just tell me and we'll work something out.
4, But if push comes to shove, until you pay me for it I own the intellectual property on the stuff I'm doing for you. You have to see this as a risk to the bigger picture, and clearly it's a risk that you'll be wanting to alleviate.

Dave

Re:Well,

[BitGeek]

Well, since you admit you are a lawyer I should assume everything you say is a lie.

Anyway, if you are afraid of your wife finding out, or of being hauled into court, then either threat is extortion by your definition and you, yourself, are a criminal if you have ever mentioned meeting someone in court to settle a dispute.

By the way, you don't get to claim to be an authority "I am a lawyer" and then claim to not be giving legal advice. IF you aren't willing to be bound by what you say, shut up about being a lawyer. On the net, nobody can tell you're a dog.

Furthermore, the law is irrelevant to this discussion-- the poster asked about MORALITY, not the law. The law has nothing to do with morality, and, in fact, a very large portion of the laws are flat out immoral. (Such as taxation for services not received-- anyone paying property taxes to schools who doesn't have kids is being stolen from immorally.)

clarification?

[rabbits77]

From the post it sounds like teh only week you met the miletsones for was week 1. Is that true? If so, I woudln't pay you either seeing as you seemed to have f-ed up the other *month* of the contract so far.