I began work in December of 2008 with former Limewire engineer Adam Fisk on his new project LittleShoot. We cut a deal that was fairly simple 100 USD per hour for 50% of profits up until my contributed time has been paid off. The problem is that I had worked and earned some $52,000 USD but was only paid several thousand dollars of the entirety. This isn’t entirely because Adam didn’t pay, he attempted, but quickly began bouncing checks when he had depleted the company funds. I doubt I will ever see another dime from this Adam Fisk and the five to six months I so diligently worked with him on LittleShoot.
Below is Adam’s response to a Cease and Desist letter he received from me when I began to receive rubber checks.
Hi Julian-
As someone who I’ve worked very closely with in the recent past, it
saddens me things have gotten to this point. Given all that has taken
place, however, it’s unlikely I’ll communicate with you again except
through my lawyers and except through sending you checks as per our
initial contract. I want to make several points crystal clear,
however, as I don’t think any of this is in either of our interests.
Here goes:
1) As we’ve explicitly written time after time, our initial contract
was for you to receive 50% of LittleShoot profits up until you
received $100 per hour for the time you contributed. There was never
any ambiguity in this very simple and straightforward contract.
Unfortunately for both of us, LittleShoot has not made any revenue,
let alone profit. Even so, LittleShoot has compensated you as best it
could with checks of $1400, $1700, $2000, with the last two checks
paid on credit and clearly stretching the company beyond its financial
limit to provide you with income for your contributions despite still
never making a profit.
2) All of the code in the LittleShoot code base is licensed under the
GPL, as is clearly stated on our web site and as you were abundantly
aware in our many conversations as well as in our written
communications dating back to your first days working on LittleShoot.
Hundreds of developers have since downloaded and used the LittleShoot
code base under the GPL, and the GPL cannot be revoked.
3) LittleShoot owns the copyright to all of the code you contributed.
As someone I still consider a friend despite the many unfortunate
courses our relationship has taken, I will tell you my source for this
is none other than my longtime adviser on these matters, Eben Moglen,
former lead counsel for the FSF and chief enforcer of the GPL. I have
also consulted several other very knowledgeable copyright lawyers on
this subject. Because we compensated you for your work on LittleShoot
under your contract, your work falls under “work for hire.” This
means LittleShoot LLC owns the copyright, beyond it clearly being
licensed under the GPL. Note that I don’t need to tell you this, and
it may not be in my legal interest, but you should know your copyright
claims will not hold up in court before spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars you don’t have in an unsuccessful claim in addition to
paying any bills LittleShoot pays in the process (see item #6).
4) Extortion or threats of defamation will not persuade LittleShoot
and are of course illegal.
5) As I have stated countless times, LittleShoot will continue to
abide by its initial contract with you. As noted above, LittleShoot
has gone above and beyond in adhering to this contract since we
initially made it, and we will obviously continue to do so under
standard contract law.
6) You should also be aware the unsuccessful claimant in copyright
litigation can be ordered to pay all the defendant’s legal fees.
7) The potential LittleShoot angel investors are already abundantly
aware of you and your claims and have been for some time, as is the
LittleShoot advisory board. While it’s clearly not ideal, experienced
investors know potential litigation between early contributors is a
common obstacle for startups.
I know you have come to view me as your mortal enemy because you have
not received the money you hoped we would make in profit sharing and
are unlikely to take any advice from me as a result. Nevertheless, I
strongly urge you to seek knowledgeable counsel on this subject before
proceeding, particularly because you seem to think our series of
e-mails depicts some reality different from what I have just
described. To be very explicit, your Generalized Anxiety Disorder is
not your friend in this case, and it should not influence your legal
decisions. You should have a knowledgeable copyright lawyer you
really trust look at all of this before proceeding — look at every
e-mail and at every angle. You will undoubtedly view this as some
attempt at a trick, but bear in mind I am not like you and do not
think like you. I am generally far to open with information and far
too trusting. I will tell you your case is extremely weak despite
what you seem to think, and I have had the best people in the business
look at your case in particular very carefully. I am lucky enough to
have good friends with that knowledge, and hopefully you are too.
You can feel free to go public with whatever you like within the
bounds of defamation and extortion law. I say this because the more
the reality of what has occurred comes to light, the better
LittleShoot looks. You seem to think we should have paid you for your
work with money we don’t have and outside of your very clear and
explicit contract. I’m not exactly sure why you think this, but
you’re on very weak ground both legally and in the field of potential
public opinion.
Again, I am unlikely to respond to any future communications from you
except for through my lawyers, Julian, so I’ll just say best of luck
to you in everything, I still think of our time working together as
overall a positive one, and hopefully this will all be behind us
someday. Hopefully LittleShoot will also make a profit sooner rather
than later, in which case your initial contract clearly entitles you
to more compensation beyond what LittleShoot has already paid. You
can make it minimally more difficult for LittleShoot to make that
profit through your continued efforts, but I feel confident we will
make it no matter what occurs and will ultimately compensate you for
every minute you worked on LittleShoot.
All the Best,
-Adam Fisk
Founder
LittleShoot
Clearly this email isn’t about the “lack of ability to pay” but more about “don’t tell anyone I won’t pay”. It is clearly a threat and nothing more.
For the wall of shame here is one of Adam Fisk’s worthless rubber checks.
Note from bank: “This check deposited to your account was returned unpaid. Please contact the maker of the check for more information.”
Even though the note from the bank is what it is they closed that account due to “fraud”. Yes, depositing a check that isn’t “good” is now considered “fraud” in the eyes of “some” banks.
The economy is tight right now so remember don’t give something for nothing or at least obtain a retainer if you intend on doing contract work as apparently word of mouth doesn’t hold much water even with the once well respected people.
LittleShoot Website
