[charlesdm]

Write it off. One thing I probably would do is send a friendly e-mail to the investors, explaining the situation. Keep it short, a few sentences max. Given the situation, offer they pay you a reasonable fee for the problem to go away. Do you have any evidence supporting your claim?

The fact that there was no formal contract does not mean he legally owns your IP. E-mails can be valid contracts. Did they rebuild the software or continue working from what you build?

Problems like these can be major deterrents for future investors/acquirers.

[adtruth]

I accidentally commented using the wrong account -- that's the [deleted] reply above. Here's the content:

He used the project as an example of his work in order to get an investor job four years ago. Once he got the job, he abandoned the project altogether. None of my IP is at risk -- the project is dead, he never had repo access, and his new venture is unrelated in terms of the tech.

At the time, he had assembled a 'board' of well-known startup folks. I considered emailing them at the time as you described, but feared that the drama would have a negative impact on my very young freelance career and decided not to.

I have emails containing documenting specific requirements, which he agreed to, and emails / chat logs where he says he's happy with the project and ready to go live with it. Everything but the formal contract.

[Red_Tarsius]

> Given the situation, offer they pay you a reasonable fee for the problem to go away.

I'm afraid the investors would read it as some kind of bribe and the culprit could sue him for such accusations. He doesn't have a contract to support his claims, the e-mail would cause more trouble than it's worth it.

[charlesdm]

Doesn't he have e-mails to prove his case? Those are often as good as a written contract.

At the very least, they should know the kind of person who they invested money in.

In addition, they invested in this company to make money, no? In the event they are not interested in fixing it now and you have some valid evidence then you can always sue if they make it big/sell it.

[thrownaway122]

This could be libel... Or blackmail... If the OP does not have evidence to back up the claim he could be the one paying. (I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice and I assume nor are you.)

[charlesdm]

I would assume there is some evidence to support his claim. Indeed, if there is nothing, then probably nothing can be done.

It also depends on how you word it. I would offer to transfer the IP rights of the original software to them. If they're not using the original software, then again there might be little he can do.

I'm not a lawyer, but did discuss a similar situation with a lawyer friend a while back. Worth getting an initial consultation about this with a lawyer, imo.

[thrownaway122]

<quote>Worth getting an initial consultation about this with a lawyer, imo.</quote>

First sensible thing thing anyone has said on this thread! For legal issues the best advice anyone can give is pay a lawyer to look into it. Expensive I know but law is complicated and some mistakes can be expensive.