I'd like to see if I can get the communities opinion on a sticky situation that happened earlier this morning. First some backstory. I'm 2 days away from my final days at work as a software engineer, I gave in my two week notice and piled up some money that I can live off of to buy me 1 years worth of time to work and invest in a project I want to work on.

Time is what is most valuable to me right now, and I have hired a few very good freelancer who have been working with me to bring an indie game I'd like to complete to life. I recently reached out to receive some help with getting a web page designed, in the transaction we had a work agreement where no content I share with the person is supposed to be publish without my permission. This is important because I gave the person about 10 weeks worth of art updates I planned to stretch out in weekly intervals just incase I have a slow week of development so I can still have content to post on my twitter or facebook to keep the project always looking active.

Long story short, he decided to take it upon himself and register a facebook page in my projects name where he proceeded to release all the art I gave him (luckily I still have more art, but thats beside the point). He messaged me letting me know he also wants to be in charge of my facebook + twitter + social media & customer service, for many reasons I can't have someone else acting on behalf of my project that isn't me or authorized by me since I'm taking this project very seriously for obvious reasons (i.e quitting job)

I told him to remove the content and he did, but he refused to delete the facebook page because he wants to be in charge of the social media, he apologized profusely. At this point I'm not to sure if there is any real bad intentions or not, but as of right now I can't trust him to work on the project with me and I don't exactly know how to handle it. We did have an agreemant where I would pay him to design the look and feel of the website, should I just pay him the amount we agreed and tell him we should go our seperate ways? will this send him into a defensive position where he might want to continue acting as me or my project and try to make his own page or twitter? Should I only pay him a partial amount since there was a breach of agreement?

we do have a digitally signed contract, pursuing legal action is not really realistic.

Your lawyer will tell you what's the best way to act to protect your interests in this context, and this may involve him personally talking to that person you hired. This doesn't necessarily mean going to court if that person is cooperative.

See with your relatives and friends if they know of any lawyers you could come in contact with.

EDIT: The reason why you're seeking a lawyer is that this is a critical moment and you want to avoid making layman mistakes like threatening or bargaining with that person.

In any case, do let him go, you can't afford to keep someone like that who doesn't understand what he is and isn't allowed to do but worse tries to force your hand with your OWN property.

I thank everyone for their input, here are some tidbits of information.

A few of you mention speaking with a lawyer, honestly thats overkill in this situation + they are in a completely different country its not realistic to get the law involved because some content that I was gonna slowly release anyhow gets leaked out 6 or 7 weeks ahead of time.

I'm seeing there is alot of "business management" that takes away from my time developing but for the most part I'm okay with it and things are still running smoothly, and as far as my funds are concerned I should have enough, but I don't really plan on needing a lawyer honestly.

My plan is to let him go, but I'm trying to think of the best way to do it cause i can see pros and cons in the different approaches. If i let him stay to finish the design work he was originally contracted for he might make a bigger deal about sticking around in the long run, If i end our relationship early he might react negatively towards that.

My plan is to let him go, but I'm trying to think of the best way to do it cause i can see pros and cons in the different approaches.

Your lawyer will tell you what's the best way to act to protect your interests in this context