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Comment by gkoberger | Hacker News Reader

I find it odd that I can't find anything about BornDigital on Google. A web design firm without a website? Also, they spell their name differently on the page ("BornDigital" and "Born.Digital")- something seems off to me.

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Here's the official response, by the way (via http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_181227.asp)

"This former volunteer did, during the early stages of the campaign, assist with website construction and maintenance on a strictly voluntary basis as no contracts or agreements were ever entered into. This is not uncommon, and FEC guidelines do not require payment for these types of services.

"For a variety of reasons, this volunteer is no longer with the campaign. Several months after this volunteer departed the campaign, he sent a bill for more than $30,000 for his previous volunteer work.

"We do not owe this volunteer any money, and we are currently hosting our full website at votetimgobble.com.

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http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/8998094/artic...

According to that article:

"Today, Gobble identified BornDigital.com as a “one-man show” and named Perk Evans as the administrator."

So the awesome http://www.BornDigital.com is the company that did work for Mr. Tim Gobble.

UPDATE: http://bradleynewsgroup.blogspot.com/search?q=perk

Seems like the two knew each other as that article says Perk Evans was a volunteer at the police station. Not sure why Gobble would want to do business with this guy, but oh well. It's his $30K

With out a contract the effort he put in is his. Therefore he owns the copyrights, sites, etc, for all the work he created. Therefore a bill is quite appropriate if the campaign wishes to continue using his creation.

That's wrong. He volunteered. It's not like you can bill the Salvation Army for the clothes you donated.

Congress dreamed up some weird criteria to determine copyright ownership, and no matter how wrong it is, it still the law. Unless it was a work for hire, which it probably isn't under 17 U.S.C. §101 as there was neither employment nor anything in writing, the copyright belongs to the author.

There are probably implied licenses, but that is definitely a question for a lawyer.

http://www.borndigitalwebdesign.com/

I assume it's this company. Not sure if BornDigital is a local company or not.

You're right, it is. The whois info matches up.

However, look when that site was registered: "May 03, 2010"

TimGobble, on the other hand, was registered on "May 21, 2008"

And it's barely ranked on Google. Seems like the official version is right, since the company was created very recently. Looks to me like a shakedown due to a volunteer-based relationship gone bad.

[Note: Person below me might be onto something.. and if he is, it makes the argument that its a "fake" company even stronger]

And if you look at the Born Digital website they're based in Enfield. If they're the designer, then they're only local if he's running for the Greater London Assembly. Last I checked we didn't have a congress.

I think you've fingered the wrong firm here. Looking at the site, the proprietor of Born Digital Web Design (http://www.borndigitalwebdesign.com/about-us/) is Tim Fox, whereas this guy is meant to be called Perk Evans (http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/8998094/artic...). The whois matching is just Domains By Proxy.

Interestingly enough, if one goes to votetimgobble.com, the logo in the upper right (which appears throughout the site) shows timgobble.com

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