Hi, Paul.

>Tell me about it!! But if he is willing to pay me instead of a lawyer Im all for it. If what he wants done is even a possibility :)

Well, in this case, start billing him for consulting time over the solution research. This way, you can recommend him a lawyer in the end, telling him you found the right solution. 8-)

Now, thinking about that, the best solution could really be an escrow service or something like that. They sign a letter and make a deposit the source code on an attorney's office. Once the customer fully paid for it, the attorney could release the source code to the customers.

This is indeed what we do with some big customer to cover them for the case we went bankrupt or any fatal contingency in which we can't keep providing service for them. The contract clearly stated that the attorney can't release source code if we are able to provide the proper maintenance, in our own terms.

Best luck,