Internet Law and Intellectual Property

[annie_walters]

I was unofficially employed by my sisters husband(based in the U.S) as of June 2009-May 2010. During this time I had created blogs, and articles in two different free article submission sites Hub pages and Squidoo. All free site profiles were set up by me.Content was written and pages were created by me. I was given instructions over the internet via email and on Skype.

During the periods June to May 2010 the affiliate links belong to my sister's husband were placed in the articles blogs and hubpages and squidoo and he was recieving payments. I only received three payments from him one in Dec 2009, Feb 2010 and March 2010.

I did not have a contract but in May I told him that I would like to discontinue the working relation. In June I continued writing in two of the hub pages profile (set up in July 2009) then deleted the existing links which belonged to my brother n laws associate account and I replaced them with links which I had created through a new Associate account in my name.

I have continued to write and build on the hub page account. I recieved a letter this week form my brother in law stating that he had recieved a letter from the affiliate program about a breech in contract for having two links from the associate program linked to the same site.
He sent me a letter threatening legal action if I did not give him the login details to the site and a summary of all payments and earnings since May. He also got my sister involved and the rest of the family. I gave the full summary of all information requested. I requested a copy of the letter he recieved from the affiliate program, but he refused to send me a copy stating that I needed to get my attorney to get the letter from his attorney.

I have contacted the said affiliate program asking them if there is any problem with my associate account. Yesterday I disclosed all earnings and accounts created but just got a reply that his attorney would present the case to the Affiliate program and he would get back to me.
Today when I tried to login to my hub pages account I found that I cannot login in and that the affiliate links of some pages are new changed to his affiliate accounts, while some still have my associate links in them. This contradicts the initial correspondence e of double links coming from the site because he has now added his associate links in some of the pages. I have not contacted my brother in law since this discovery.
Please advice on my legal position.

 

[army judge]

I was unofficially employed by my sisters husband(based in the U.S) as of June 2009-May 2010. During this time I had created blogs, and articles in two different free article submission sites Hub pages and Squidoo. All free site profiles were set up by me.Content was written and pages were created by me. I was given instructions over the internet via email and on Skype.

During the periods June to May 2010 the affiliate links belong to my sister's husband were placed in the articles blogs and hubpages and squidoo and he was recieving payments. I only received three payments from him one in Dec 2009, Feb 2010 and March 2010.

I did not have a contract but in May I told him that I would like to discontinue the working relation. In June I continued writing in two of the hub pages profile (set up in July 2009) then deleted the existing links which belonged to my brother n laws associate account and I replaced them with links which I had created through a new Associate account in my name.

I have continued to write and build on the hub page account. I recieved a letter this week form my brother in law stating that he had recieved a letter from the affiliate program about a breech in contract for having two links from the associate program linked to the same site.
He sent me a letter threatening legal action if I did not give him the login details to the site and a summary of all payments and earnings since May. He also got my sister involved and the rest of the family. I gave the full summary of all information requested. I requested a copy of the letter he recieved from the affiliate program, but he refused to send me a copy stating that I needed to get my attorney to get the letter from his attorney.

I have contacted the said affiliate program asking them if there is any problem with my associate account. Yesterday I disclosed all earnings and accounts created but just got a reply that his attorney would present the case to the Affiliate program and he would get back to me.
Today when I tried to login to my hub pages account I found that I cannot login in and that the affiliate links of some pages are new changed to his affiliate accounts, while some still have my associate links in them. This contradicts the initial correspondence e of double links coming from the site because he has now added his associate links in some of the pages. I have not contacted my brother in law since this discovery.
Please advice on my legal position.

Simply put, you are in a very precarious legal position.
Why?
You have no contract.
But, even if you had a contract, you would be hard pressed to enforce it in your country or in the US.

If you attempted to pursue this in the US, you'd have to bring suit in a US court.
You'd have to come to the US to begin such proceedings.
This wouldn't make sound financial sense.

If you pursued this in your country, you'd have a very hard time suing a US citizen.
Your court would have no automatic jurisdiction over someone in the US.

You'd be wise to negotiate a compromise, if you ever expect to receive payment.
Speaking to your sister to intercede on your behalf might be your only option.