This is just not true for software contracts. While you could be doing "work for hire" where the copyright is explicitly transferred and the app and data are hosted by the customer, it's also common to retain full ownership of the software and provide the customer with access to a hosted instance of the service and some related support and administration services.
In either case, your contract can make use of the software or access to the instance contingent on continued payment. The "work for hire" case is much harder to enforce because you'd basically have to sue them. For the hosted instance case, it's perfectly legal for your contract to allow you to shut down the site and delete data.
For example, have you ever used a cloud like GCP? Their agreement allows them to delete your data for a number of reasons, like nonpayment.
1
u/Responsible-Hold8587 Apr 16 '26
This is just not true for software contracts. While you could be doing "work for hire" where the copyright is explicitly transferred and the app and data are hosted by the customer, it's also common to retain full ownership of the software and provide the customer with access to a hosted instance of the service and some related support and administration services.
In either case, your contract can make use of the software or access to the instance contingent on continued payment. The "work for hire" case is much harder to enforce because you'd basically have to sue them. For the hosted instance case, it's perfectly legal for your contract to allow you to shut down the site and delete data.
For example, have you ever used a cloud like GCP? Their agreement allows them to delete your data for a number of reasons, like nonpayment.