[faeyanpiraat]

If you had a proper contract, talking to a lawyer should fix your payment issue.

As others have pointed it out they were not your friends in the first place.

I’m lucky as I have managed to gain a true friend through work, but it takes a lot of time spent together, I’m not sure if it is even possible remotely.

If you are remote ppl can also use you as a scapegoat for issues they have that you are not even remotely responsible for.

I’m sorry you had this experience.

[AThrowAway99]

It's clear something like this has happened. Writing it down and getting valuable feedback here is helping me with my self doubt. I'm always questioning all kinds of things about myself surrounding this. I didn't create the end product in a vacuum, many people contributed to it and it feels weird to state my importance over others.

Looks like it will be court at this point. I'm more worried about my career and reputation now.

[testvox]

By the way, in the United States copyright is owned by the author of the work unless there is a written contract assigning it to someone else. The only real exception to this is an employee can assign copyright to their employer by mere verbal agreement. Since you were a contractor they don't have the copyright unless you actually have a written contract assigning it to them.

[AThrowAway99]

This is exactly the contract that has caused the issue. I asked for the agreed fee for my IP under the terms of the contract.