I'm not going to take sides in this argument because I haven't seen the code in question nor have I seen the contract so I can't tell if the code is what it should be.

I'll just say this:
I was asked to do a small programming job for someone who had previously hired TD. I got to see the code and it looked reasonable at first so I accepted the job. When I started coding I noticed tons of quirks in the code making it nearly impossible to extend it without knowing the -entire, stretched out, smeared all over the place- codebase. TD is obviously and intelligent person but the code was so weird that I got the impression this was done on purpose to make sure only he is able to maintain the code.

I quit the job pretty quickly and luckily this was possible because it was more or less 'charity work' (I would get a very small compensation at the end but there was no contract or anything..)

Again, I can't judge about this particular case.