I used to run a pretty successful message board devoted to Harry Potter. It was something I was really proud of, we had 1400+ (Which isn't too shabby, though not much compared to a place like here) members, and some of the best debates I've had on the 'net, in any subject. I started them about 2 years ago on a lite version of UBB, then we went to ezboard, and now they're on vBulletin. Anyway, I had one admin when we were on ezBoard, and he offered to pay for the vBulletin software. I said ok, and that he would be reimbursed from advertising money we were getting from the main site (The boards were branched off from MuggleNet, one of the most popular HP sites)
We'd lasted for quite some time on vBulletin without any big problems. But then there was some tension between the other admin(who paid for vBulletin) and myself. He started to oppose all new ideas, even when the rest of the staff (the moderators and me) disagreed with him, and generally he was(and is) an ass. I told him that he was acting like he owned the place. He said that he did own the place, and that he had never been reimbursed. The main webmaster of MuggleNet says that this admin refused to be payed. I don't know who to believe on this, both of them have lied to me before. Finally, I got fed up with it, resigned from the boards and started posting at a board started by another disgruntled member. Almost all of the moderators left with me.
My question is, legally, who owns the boards? I started them, but he paid for the software, and incidentally hosts the boards, even though I wanted them hosted the same place as MuggleNet. They could just as easily be on phpBB or some other free script, and off of his host. Also, the MuggleNet main site was started by myself and the current main webmaster, so I think the name MuggleNet belongs to us.
We'd lasted for quite some time on vBulletin without any big problems. But then there was some tension between the other admin(who paid for vBulletin) and myself. He started to oppose all new ideas, even when the rest of the staff (the moderators and me) disagreed with him, and generally he was(and is) an ass. I told him that he was acting like he owned the place. He said that he did own the place, and that he had never been reimbursed. The main webmaster of MuggleNet says that this admin refused to be payed. I don't know who to believe on this, both of them have lied to me before. Finally, I got fed up with it, resigned from the boards and started posting at a board started by another disgruntled member. Almost all of the moderators left with me.
My question is, legally, who owns the boards? I started them, but he paid for the software, and incidentally hosts the boards, even though I wanted them hosted the same place as MuggleNet. They could just as easily be on phpBB or some other free script, and off of his host. Also, the MuggleNet main site was started by myself and the current main webmaster, so I think the name MuggleNet belongs to us.
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