Gary,
doing someone a favor is one thing. But I know this behavior myself - I've experienced it many times decades ago. It bugged my, so I developed a solution:
The customer (ANY customer) will receive the finished object via e-mail, ftp or any other kind of media. However, it has a copyright notice stamped on it with 50% transparency and an ugly texture - no way to use a pixel editor to get rid of the copyright mark. The second file they receive is an encrypted zip or rar file, protected with a password. This one contains exactly the same object or artwork, but without the copyright stamp, and I inform the customer about this fact.
As soon as the payment has been irrevocable accredited to my bank account, I send him the password.
40% of my customers hate me for this. 30% flame me - because I never disclose this part of the deal when the place the order. But until today I've never felt sorry about any order or job anymore. Oh, of course I charge a 50% downpayment when they send the order.
This is the only way to protect yourself. It's a rotten world, full of a..holes who think they own the right to cheat designers, artists etc.
Let's discuss this in more detail! Maybe something about the US copyright office where you can register your artwork, and if a 'client' doesn't pay for it, you have a very excellent position in court. BTW, you can register your artwork online!
Have a great weekend,
jens
jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net
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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
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