Website Hostage

Website hostage is a situation that occurs to some business owners who choose web developers with less than standard ethics, in my opinion. The term refers to what happens when a company tries to claim that their website design is proprietary and that customers are not allowed to take their website with them when they decide to leave.

There is one company in particular I am talking about that has simply modified WordPress and not come up with anything unique at all but claims to have something unique and when a customer tries to leave their business they won’t allow them to take their website with them.

They even charge exorbitant monthly fees regardless if they do anything for the customer. I think it’s highly unethical to do this to customers. Here at SkyPoint Studios, one of the very first founding principles of our company is that customers are always encouraged to control and manage and own their own website.

We also do not hold customers in any type of monthly contracts for updating their website when they don’t necessarily always need to be updated every single month. And, if a customer wants to update their website every single month, we certainly will offer that as an option, but we don’t force them into paying that every single month regardless if they update their website or not. I find this highly unethical as well.

Why hold a customer’s website hostage?

Do you really think that what you offer is unique enough that the customer is not allowed to move their website elsewhere? I think it’s one of the worst crimes in web design and gives web designers a bad name in general.

It reeks of greed and corporate pillaging. It is about what they can get out of the customer and not what they can give to the customer.

Have you been a victim of a company that has held your website hostage? Please share in the comments down below, I love to hear your stories. Here at SkyPoint Studios we believe that the customer owns their website and we are willing to work with IP attorneys to map out the intellectual property of the website to the customer so that they as a business entity own the website in whole, in full.

It’s very important for when a business wants to sell or transfer the ownership of their business to someone else. If you’ve been a victim of website hostage before and or need help moving your website from someone like this and need someone to advocate on your behalf, please fill out our contact form located here and I will be glad to assist as much as I possibly can!

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Written by: Jophiel Silvestrone

Jophiel Silvestrone has written 326 posts in the Tech Blog.

Jophiel grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana near Chico Hot Springs. Working on the ranch instilled work ethic and self motivation. Filled with this drive, Jophiel started mowing the local school's yards twice a month throughout the summers, at the age of 12. He moved to Billings in 2004, where he has been deeply involved in the local business community ever since. A serial entrepreneur, Jophiel has ran multiple businesses in our local community. The first business, a janitorial and carpet cleaning company, founded in 2005, has employed over 50 locals. Moving on to the media industry, Jophiel and several partners founded Green Directory Montana in the spring of 2007. Green Directory's sustainability ranking software awarded points based on sustainable or "green" actions. These points counted towards a business's total "Green Score," which in turn ranked them against other businesses in their category and throughout the entire site. It also featured a limited edition print version distributed annually. A business acquisition allowed Jophiel to focus on new projects, and a few close business colleagues and Jophiel started Rocky Mountain Mr. & Ms. Magazine, a lifestyle publication for men and women in the Magic City. After a year and a half at the helm of RM3 Magazine, the business was purchased. He now runs a web development company SkyPoint Studios and fathers his son Jaoquin, who plays football, basketball, soccer, and is learning snowboarding from his dad. Recently, has expanded to locations in Havasu, Arizona & Vegas. SkyPoint Studios is a market leader in both Billings & Havasu and Jophiel is working on building that same level of market dominance in Vegas. Specialties: Extensive experience in online and offline business. Especially savvy at WordPress, and operate several sites, one example is the blog: skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com/tech-blog. Check out skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com for the latest projects from SkyPoint Studios.