Today I found out that a company, for which I used to work, paid YP.com to “redo” their website. Here’s the problem: they completely ripped off the website I made for them a few years ago.
The result is something atrocious: amongst other things, they have embedded text in images with no alt text, screwed up character encoding, used inconsistent colors for hyperlinks, littered the layout with images that scream “I’m a stock photo!” and put borders around random elements for seemingly no reason.
There is nothing I can do in this particular situation; there’s no contract. (I know—that’s my own fault.) However, it does raise the question of how to add a provision to prevent this kind of thing in future design contracts. Any thoughts?
It sounds like your main concern is that it’s not a piece of work you can show off any more, which is an irritation for anyone who works in this field. But ultimately it’s their site, and it’s really up to them what they do with it. Even if you had written a contract that they aren’t allowed to alter it, that would be pretty bizarre, and not good from a service-provider point of view (imho, at least).
My suggestion is that you take screen shots of your work to keep in your portfolio, and accept that clients can do what their like with their site once your work is done. Imagine a hairdresser insisting that you not alter your hair once you’ve left the salon. It’s just not practical or reasonable.