At that time the store wasn't doing very well, and was having trouble paying its staff. I suspected they were nearly bankrupt, as some checks had already bounced. The manager told me he wouldn't be able to pay for my $400 of labor since they weren't doing well. The owner of this store had moved to another town to open a second store under the same name.
A few weeks later I received an email from someone wanting to buy the domain name. Seeing as how I was still owed $400, I didn't hesitate to sell the domain name for the original purchase price ($200). A few weeks after that, I got a call from the owner. They were starting to set up a website and needed the passwords for the domain name. When I gave him the passwords and was told they didn't work (the new domain name owner changed them as expected), I acted as if I didn't know what had happened. I felt guilty and purchased another similar domain name (same name but different extension) for $30 and gave the store owner the password for that, but never told him of what I had really done. The owner didn't know anything about domain names so this wasn't odd to him.
Was I within my rights to sell the domain name? Was what I did illegal? From what I've discovered so far what I've done might be considered theft or conversion, but since I was %26quot;holding%26quot; the domain for him, and it was registered in my name, I'm not sure.
Legal advice needed, domain name related?
Sorry, but we are definitely talking about an unlawful conversion here. You transferred ownership rights of something that you did not legally own nor have the authority to sell. For starters, you didn't pay for it. As you said, you were just %26quot;holding it%26quot; for him. He was the legal owner. Look at it this way, if I ask you to hold my watch for me, do you have the right to sell it and pocket the money?
Further, regardless of who paid for it, it was obtained by you through an existing work contract which makes it a work by-product, owned legally by the person who commissioned you to do the work. There's a reason you felt guilty. If it feels %26quot;wrong%26quot;, it usually is wrong.
Do yourself a favor and don't ever let the business owner know what you did. He could initiate a civil lawsuit and obtain a judgment for far more than he owes you in back fees.
Legal advice needed, domain name related?
What you did probably wasn't illegal, but it was wrong.
Cut and dry -- Completely illegal
You said straight up that the domain was paid by the store and you made the purchase as their agent. Therefore, the domain legally belonged to them, no matter whose name was on the WHOIS record.
When you took unauthorized control of it and sold it, you basically stole their property and sold it out from under them.
The fact the store owed you money is NO EXCUSE for theft. You should have taken them to small claims court instead rather than rip them off and sell their property.
