First, a brief explanation of why this has happened. I purchased, what
I thought, was a fully functional program written in Access last year
from a local programmer. This program was to be used as my POS for an
online DVD store. It turns out that what the programmer actually gave
me was a "license" to use his software. This was not the agreement we
made, and he knows this. He took advantage of the fact that I knew
very little about software, and led me to believe that I owned the
program.

About 4 months ago, when logging in to my database, a message popped
up saying to call the programmer for an update. I called and he have
me a 7 digit number to enter when this message pops up. I entered it
and got in. This message popped up again about a month ago and I
entered the same number, which got me into the database. This message
popped up again a week ago. I entered the same number, but this time
another message popped up, saying "err 4", and I was denied access to
my database.

My programmer and I are in the middle of a billing dispute over an
update he did for my program which didn't work. I called him about
this err 4 message, and this is when he told me that I actually only
have a license to use his program. He went on to say that until I pay
for the update mentioned earlier, he would not grant me access into my
database. I checked all of my past invoices from him, and none of them
mention anything about my purchasing a license. The first invoice I
paid, which was when I paid for the program, is billed as being for
the database and training. I pointed this out to him, and he says that
he never charged me for the license. The fact is that he never charged
me for a license because that was never part of our agreement.

I do not see an agreement between he and I any time in the near
future. I am locked out of a database which I have been entering my
stock in for almost a year. This is putting a massive strain on my
business.

I know very little about programming, actually nothing. I have
attempted to recover the database through a couple of programs. The
closest I have come was through a trial version of a program called
Nuclear Kernel Access. I don't really understand the program, but when
I open the database, I can see my database information (inventory,
users, etc).

If anyone out there could help me with this dilemma, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks, in advance.

Chase