Yeah, the whole copywrite thing is an issue – unless there was an agreement in place.
In 2016 I had a member that I trusted to work the site who stole the entire site and started selling it to start-up VAs.
Long story short and $500 to a copyright lawyer in Dallas, a cease-and-desist letter was sent and that fortunately worked. If that had not worked, I would have been out thousands to go to court and the return on the violation would never cover the cost as the profit level of the Individual on the stolen software was miniscule.
Since then, and at the advice of that same lawyer, any development contract included that all changes to our site became the property of the site. In the case of the forum, it was installed under contract. I didn’t buy the module and install it myself. I also think that he is in default as he is not holding up his end, but I dont want to spend another $500 to get the question answered. Friggen lawyers!
I also had an app developed that not only included that language, but also an exclusive use and NDA for the software keeping it closed to our use only.
Bottom line here, it was still crappy business to just drop off the planet and leave everyone hanging. If he had the intension of going out of business, he should have let current license holders know and give them options. I would have gladly given $200 to buy a full right copy for the site.