Slashdot Mirror
Compensation for Bandwidth Costs is Extortion?
Tha_Big_Guy23 asks: "According to this article, a man who created a website for his local Sheriff's department is being charged with extortion. This was caused by taking down the website after repeated attempts to get compensation from the county to cover the bandwidth costs. As a result, all his personal computer property, and company computer property was seized and he was jailed."
"After being jailed he was charged with extortion, larceny by conversion, using a computer to commit a crime, and obstruction of justice. This website explains in more detail the circumstances surrounding the situation. Has anyone on Slashdot ever had an experience where a client was unwilling to compensate you for either your work, and/or the resources required to do your work?"
While the end result of this situation is a shame, let this situation serve as a warning for those of you who work, without a contract in place. While it is the general hope that people will behave in an honorable manner, sometimes this is just not the case, and contracts exist to protect both parties, when things go sour.
While the end result of this situation is a shame, let this situation serve as a warning for those of you who work, without a contract in place. While it is the general hope that people will behave in an honorable manner, sometimes this is just not the case, and contracts exist to protect both parties, when things go sour.
What's the point in posting this story? No, really. All everyone is going to do is jump up and down and scream about the web designer getting shafter. The responses are totally predictable, and nothing more is going to come of the story. So what's the point? No, seriously, what's the fucking point? This story is a waste of pixels, frankly. Post something with some goddamn significance.
Correct. He should have taken up the matter in civil court, rather than trying to extort money from the sheriff's department. He might have gotten an attorney to work for contingency, rather than have to hire a defense attorney (who generally charges by the hour).
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Here's yet another example of why I think Slashdot should implement something Plastic and Kuro5hin have been doing for quite a while: let participating users check the submission before it's posted to the main page.
It'd be a lot easier to stop stories like this from being posted without heavy editing, and dupes would never (or rarely) get through.
Of course, the downside is fewer articles and greater delay. Might be worth trying it out, though.