The site was taken away, what to do?

Question

Search Engine Optimization

A man came to me with a very interesting problem. A couple of years ago, he agreed with one "student" that he would write and maintain a website for him. For this, the student received payment by transfer to the card, and a percentage of sales was paid. The firm also provided photographs of their work.
A month ago, the "student" (who is the actual owner of the site) decided that he was paid too little and changed the contacts on the site to the contacts of the company - a competitor. The owner of the company was upset and asked me to make a copy of the existing site, because there is everything he needs, and he took a liking to it.
The site is in the top 10 of Yandex for 3 dozen queries. Questions accordingly:

1. Does it make sense to make a copy of the site?
   
2. Will it rank if you change the texts on the site?
   
3. Is it possible to limit the use of company photos in any way? (As far as I understand, this is unprovable)
   

Answer 1

Domain on the student - do not pick it up.
In theory, the photos should belong to the customer, now the student does not have the right to post them on the site, you can sue for copyright.
In general, if the customer once paid for this site for the creation, then the site should belong to him, but this can only be done through the courts, as proof of the transaction, all correspondence and bank statements about payment are needed.
It is possible to make a copy, but it is difficult, it will gain weight for a long time and rank worse at the beginning. How then - depends on the quality of the site. The texts must be changed, in general it is necessary to make a completely different site, albeit about the same thing, but the site is different.

Answer 2

the main question: why did you get the idea that your customer is not lying, maybe he just asks you to commit illegal actions?
It makes no sense to make a copy of the site, it will still not appear in the search results in the same place as the original, without long-term work on promotion. It makes sense to do better.
All sites are ranked, apparently you picked up a bad term. Q: How will it rank? If the texts are not unique, but de facto they are on an older and more authoritative site, there will be problems with SEO.
It is theoretically possible to prohibit the use of a photo, as well as to prove theft, but this question should be asked to a lawyer, and not on a toaster.
I believe that from the point of view of your customer, making a copy is pointless. Except if he needs a copy, and the story with the student is a fairy tale. It's just that people want a copy of a popular resource in order to make money on fraud, and to make you extreme. Very comfortably. To begin with, I would look at the copies of the site in the archives and confirm the theory that your customer's contacts were once there.

Answer 3

Duplicate site will not lead to anything.
If you do, then make a completely new site with new content.

Answer 4

Who owns the domain?
Make a copy of the site, expand the domain to a new copy and that's it.
You can even make an html version of the site for the first time.

Answer 5

Throw the site in VK

Answer 6

If all the work of the student was paid, the site theoretically belongs to the company to the customer. I would have done the following if they had thrown me like that - I would have registered a trademark (website domain) for my company and would have returned it through the court, but for this the company must have an agreement with the student, and all documents confirming the payment of his labor, which in fact is long-term service provided by the student.