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Comment by dctoedt | Hacker News Reader

Pay the invoices, using what? The company stopped paying because it was running out of money -- and the developer's [EDIT: resignation and subsequent] lawsuit threw a wrench into the company's efforts A) to launch, and B) to raise more money, either of which would have measurably improved the odds of the developer's eventually getting paid.

[EDIT: Keep in mind that the developer quit; the startup had to hire someone else to take over in order to get its product launched. What was the company supposed to do, fold its tent because one unpaid consultant -- who had also been given company stock, BTW -- decided to throw his legal weight around? I doubt many founders would agree.]

I sympathize with the developer, but in this case he shot himself in the foot just as surely as the company did.

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The company hired someone else to continue development of the consultant’s code — in response, the consultant sued for copyright infringement.

If they simply stopped paying his invoices as the article states, then that means the consultant had already done work that he still hasn't been paid for. Regardless of who owns the copyright, if the company still hasn't paid him for those invoices, they have no claim whatsoever to those last few weeks of work, regardless of any contract.

Wait, you're saying companies should be able to get away with promising to pay people for work and then not follow through? How could this ever be a good idea?

Since he sued them for copyright infringement, that means they used code they hadn't paid for. If they'd realized they couldn't pay, told him as much and deleted any code developed during the unpaid time span, he might still have tried to sue for damages based on breach of contract, but not copyright infringement.

Of course it's not a good idea - but companies do run out of money. When they do, the relevant question isn't, how do we inflict further punishment; it's, how can we maximize the chances of people getting paid.

The developer could have just sued for the money owed him, without adding the incendiary copyright-infringement charge.

This was an example of a circular firing squad (well, to the extent you can have a circle with two people). It looks to me as though all hands played it badly.

I mostly agree with you, but I have one serious doubt remaining. If the company in question was so broke, how could they hire a new contractor instead of just paying the current one? That action leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I think perhaps the original developer had good reason to want more than just the money they owed him for his contract work. It looks to me like there were lies involved, at least somewhat.

Maybe the new contractor was on a much-reduced rate. Hire an experienced developer to do most of the work, don't pay him for the work he's done, then hire a new grad to finish it off?

If the company is operated in such a way that it promises to pay people and then doesn't, perhaps a more relevant question is, how do we keep more people from getting scammed into working for free.

The fact that the company was able to hire an additional contractor demonstrates that they had the finances available to pay all or part of their outstanding debt.

The use of copyright-infringement forces the company to meet their ethical and legal responsibilities immediately, before proceeding with leveraging his work. It's not the contractor's responsibility to provide the corporation a bridge loan.

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