Continue reading »]]> After recording a series of short videos yesterday, I felt the need to make a video to give a clarification of my position of using and making State Bar Complaints and Attorney General Complaints against those Lawyers whose sleazy legal tactics cross the line in doing their so-called jobs.

Lawyers don’t get to abuse their powers in their letter-writing. They don’t get to lie or exaggerate rampantly. They don’t get to over-twist and over-bend the law to their liking. And they have a certain code of conduct, they should follow. No one can really stop what they do. But we, as non-lawyers, can fight back in a very potent and forceful manner to get them to back the frak off. Like any good weapon, power should be used responsibility and with discretion, not trivially. I have written this before but if someone wants take what I have said out of context, I get angry.

In this video, you will see I get a bit angry to the point I trip over my tongue and words a bit. But I think most of you will get my meaning.

Continue reading »]]> It seems not a single major news media source has written about the very serious and extended outage of the BillPay service provided by major U.S. Banks. Bank customers throughout the U.S. are complaining and being held hostage for nearly two days now. Evidence of this can be seen in Twitter.

This began with my own unhappy experience of not being able to log into my Suntrust BillPay on Monday night around 8pm. I tried a couple more times with no success.  On Tuesday morning, there was no error message. Only the inability to log in to my BillPay from my Suntrust Online Banking Account.

As I stayed in my home office working patiently waiting for an opportunity to input some urgent payments in addition to checking on what payments should be coming out tomorrow, I finally called the toll-free number customer service number and was politely informed that BillPay was down since 3pm on Monday afternoon. Tuesday has come and nearly gone. We are headed into Wednesday with no indication when the BillPay service will be available again.

Because there seems to be zero coverage of this extensive and widespread BillPay outage, I took to Twitter to do my own research and write this update. Hopefully, Google will pick this up and disseminate to BillPay victims being held hostage.

It appears many people are blaming their bank for the BillPay problem when in reality the BillPay problem is actually larger than any one bank.

From my Twitter research and my own accounts with four of these banks, the following banks are suffering from the same BillPay outage:

• Bank of America
• Bank Atlantic
• Charles Schwab
• First Tech Federal Credit Union
• ING Direct
• Suntrust Bank
• Synovus Banks
• Wells Fargo

There are probably many, many banks that I have not listed but affected and simply not showing up on the Twitter feed but I will add those names as I find out about them.

It tells me that the BillPay service is larger than any one bank. I am unsure if BillPay is being provided by a single vendor of which the various banks and credit unions purchase from and use.

It seems apparent to me, there is going to be hell to pay because of the resulting late fees that will be incurred by the tens of thousands (perhaps even hundreds of thousands) accounts nationwide. It seems no one in customer service knows anything. The online customer service rep I spoke to said this afternoon that there were hundreds of complaints already.

Myself alone I have quite a few large payments that were due today and tomorrow. I question whether those payments will be made now despite the fact they were put in two weeks ago.

This has got to be the most severe BillPay outage that I can recall. I am still monitoring my Twitter feed in hopes there is some indication that BillPay service will be restored. I hope to provide an update later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Continue reading »]]> At long last, I made my first and long overdue video commentary on the “Reality Steve Lawsuit”. This morning, I felt a priority to produce some ELI-related videos to support my existing blog posts. After I was done with those four other videos, I figured since I was already dressed up and the video camcorder was already positioned and mounted, I would go ahead and quickly shoot a video commentary for my “Reality Steve Lawsuit” followers.

I should warn you that I didn’t have any notes or an outline as I had planned weeks ago. Given that, I give fair warning the entire video was done spontaneously and hurriedly. You can tell because I step on my tongue a few times. There are some incomplete sentences where I just “jump” to another sentence or topic altogether. That is what happens when your brain goes faster than your mouth and you don’t prepare ahead of time. So I am sorry about that.

The one thing I did like about doing the video is that it was far quicker to do record and produce the video than to write the long commentaries and analyses I normally do. So, that is a small incentive for me to do future “Reality Steve Lawsuit” updates using video.  We will see how it goes.

I don’t record videos as much as I should. I think it is a better way to connect with my readers. If nothing else, it is a change of pace than having to type out a long article or commentary.

I don’t have anything new to report in this video. It is mostly a video where I re-introduce myself to you and tell you how I ended up getting involved as the only independent blogger (in recent months) to report and cover the Reality Steve Lawsuit. Click on on the link to get yourself caught up if you are new around here.

Hope you enjoy the video. Last thing, if I get boo’ed out of the room, it might be a long time before I do another video commentary.  LOL. Just saying….

.

Continue reading »]]> This isn’t really news. Just a little nugget I discovered and sharing specifically for readers of our “Reality Steve Extortion Lawsuit” commentaries.

I was doing a Google search of “reality steve lawsuit” and checking on ELI-generated posts when I stumbled on to a YouTube video of Hollywood Life’s Interview with Reality Steve. The interview primarily focused on “Bachelor” Ben Flajnik and winning contestant, Courtney Robertson. The video was uploaded to YouTube on March 21, 2012, well over a week after I wrote my first Reality Steve Extortion Lawsuit commentaries. By the time of that interview, ELI had posted well over half dozen commentaries.

At time index 4:17, Hollywood Life interviewer and reporter, Jennifer Kamm, asks Steve Carbone about his lawsuit.  Carbone makes a quick unnamed mention of me and the ELI blog at the very end of the interview when he refers to an “independent blogger” and “this guy he doesn’t even know” writing about him and his case where “the big man coming after the little man.”

Enjoy this little 5-minute gem.

Continue reading »]]> NY Attorney Oscar Michelen, representing Shoe Designer Karen Kell issued a “Cease & Desist” Letter to national retailer Urban Outfitters. Kell accuses Urban Outfitters of stealing her latest shoe design. The letter demands that Urban Outfitters immediately pull the shoes off the shelf or face litigation.

Karen Kell first developed the design for the shoe in April 2011 and has been marketing it ever since through the Etsy website as well as her own website. Kell claims that Urban Outfitters then put out its own copycat version of the shoe in March 2012.

Urban Outfitters’ “Multi-Loop Shoe” is shown here:

Karen Kell’s “Candy Link Shoe” is shown here:

I am certainly no expert but these shoes certainly look very similar. I would certainly be outraged by this.

Oscar Michelen, who represents “The Karen Kell Collection”, states “It’s a clear and wholesale copying of Ms. Kell’s trademarked design. We are confident that a court will agree with our position should litigation become necessary.”

The “cease and desist letter” states that the timing of Urban Outfitter’s misappropriation of Kell’s design was particularly damaging because Kell is currently in factory production of the shoe, which was previously made exclusively by hand.  Additionally, Kell’s shoe was featured on “The Martha Stewart Show” on April 26, 2012. The shoes have gained tremendous popularity which Kell may not now be able to capitalize upon, according to her lawyer.

Kell, who sells some of her other products through Urban Outfitter’s Free People line, adds, “It’s incredibly frustrating to have put all this time, effort and energy into a creative design which became a signature mark of my shoe, only to have Urban Outfitters release a blatant copy of it just as I am about to expand the sale of the shoe on a much bigger level. I’d like to see them explain how and when they came up with this design when I created it over a year ago. Urban Outfitters totally broke the trust I had developed with them.”

The letter sets May 18, 2012 at 4:00 PM as the deadline for Urban Outfitters to comply with the demands contained in the letter. It threatens litigation in Federal District Court if Urban Outfitter fails to comply.

About Karen Kell’s background,  four years ago Karen Kell had an idea to make leather shoes and accessories. She moved to Mexico where she discovered a love of vegetable tan leather. She set up a workshop and experimented with molding and carving into leather making beautiful hand crafted shoes, bags, accessories and clothing. She now has her workshop in Los Angeles, California and sells her products as “The Karen Kell Collection”.

Continue reading »]]> This is fairly major news. After a long string of nasty, outrageous, and bullying extortion letters from Attorney Timothy B. McCormack on behalf of Getty Images, I introduce to you the polar opposite: The civil and gentle Lee & Hayes Settlement Demand Letter written by Attorney Daniel M. Wadkins.

I confess that I am amazed by this letter. It is simple, “reasonable”, sanitized, and so different in tone, approach, and content than Timothy B. McCormack’s extortion letter.

• There are no outrageous demand numbers, statutory damages or references to criminal penalties.
• There is no direct and exaggerated threat to file a lawsuit.
• There is no outrageous lying, exaggeration, or personal accusations.
• There is no artificially inflated amount being demanded to pay beyond the reference to the stated amount on the original Getty Images Extortion Letter.
• There is no outrageous blustering or peacocking.
• There is no use of the word “settlement”.
• There is only one specific term usage of “copyright infringement”.

Lee & Hayes is a large law firm with many attorneys. In this case, this settlement demand letter was written by young pup lawyer and babyface, Daniel M. Wadkins.

Daniel isn’t going to embarrass himself, subject himself to state bar complaints, attorney general complaints, or otherwise damage his professional reputation and career by sending these letters.

I think it’s safe to say that ELI had some strong influence in this “new and gentle” settlement letter. Quite frankly, I don’t even think I can call Daniel’s letter an “extortion letter”. It doesn’t feel or read like an extortion letter. It feels like a civil business letter.

However, time will tell whether the actual settlement amount is actually reasonable. I suspect it will not be but who knows?  The interesting thing is this letter lays the entire responsibility of the settlement amount on Getty Images and doesn’t appear to come from the lawyer.

My opinion is that this is an experimental approach in response to the the brutal and public retaliation on Timothy B. McCormack and his letter.

Someone on the Getty front is watching, reading, and paying attention to make sure the collection lawyers are being “protected”.

I have a suspicion this new letter on behalf of Getty Images will generate some interesting discussions and comments. I am interested in what others have to say with this new letter.

Continue reading »]]> We have received a copy of the Copyright Enforcement Group Settlement Demand Letter. They are working and representing an image company we have not come across before, AKM Images.

AKM Images is using Copyright Enforcement Group to send out extortion letters. Until recently, we have never heard of AKM Images (celebrity photos) or Copyright Enforcement Group.

AKM Images appear to specialize in celebrity photos. In our copy of the letter, we are dealing with several Lindsay Lohan photos.

I have to admit that this is slightly tamer the most demand letters I’ve seen. I also have not seen settlement prices as “low” as $500 per image. It’s still unreasonably high at $500 per image but compared to Getty, Masterfile, and HAN, it is much more palatable. I would guess that Copyright Enforcement Group will go a bit lower if motivated to do so.

Continue reading »]]> We have received a copy of the Conrad & Scherer Settlement Demand Letter. Hawaiian Art Network has recruited a new law firm, Conrad & Scherer, to do their collection work. It looks to be yet another Vincent K. Tylor image infringement (no big surprise here).

$8,000 for 1 image. Standard price for a HAN extortion letter. We don’t get shocked over this unless it is over $10,000 per image.

Florida Attorneys Jeffrey L. Kominsky & Ivan Kopas of Conrad-Scherer law firm are the ones sending “extortion” letters on behalf of Hawaiian Art Network. I have never seen an “extortion letter” naming two attorneys in the signature line.

It should be interesting to watch how this big law firm operates vs. the small-time collection lawyers we have seen. There is a big list of lawyers here.  Many of them look like they are 35 or younger. You know what that means. Very little court experience, lots of office and clerical experience.

Continue reading »]]> This post and news update is for readers interested in the Cobra Collections Agency Scam.

On April 28, 2012, I announced I was going to shutdown the CobraCollectionScam.com website after moving and archiving all the information to the ELI website.  And just over a week later, I get an email update out of the blue from someone. I called the person who sent me the email to verify the credibility of the informant and accuracy of the information being sent to me. We had a 47-minute conversation. I won’t publicly reveal who or how the person is connected to know this information but I will say that after a long inquiring conversation, the information is credible enough for me and it does add up with prior information being reported.

The last big Janice & Michael report was during Spring to Summer 2009 when individuals in Fairbanks, Alaska reported to me so much information, I had to write a series of articles to cover the ongoing updated story. Obviously, it died out when Michael was let go of his job and the lawyers Janice worked with parted company with her.

As of today, I found some nuggets of what has happened since then.  First, it appears that Michael is talented in the art of wood-working. It was reported that Michael made furniture from the comfort of their Paystreak home and sold furniture he made. I am not sure if this was a part-time or full-time endeavor but it seems certain that the purpose was to generate income, not just a hobby. I have no idea what Janice did in the last 3 years. There was no information on the work front.

However, I was told Janice and one of Michael Ledden’s twin sons flew to Colorado Springs in time for the new  2011-2012 school season approximately August or September 2011. The story is that Janice missed her grandchildren and wanted to be closer to them. Both of Janice’s daughter have military husbands. One of them was stationed in Alaska and I believe the other one could be stationed at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. So, it would make sense that Janice would want to move to Colorado Springs.

It’s interesting to me that for a short time, the twin sons were split up. But knowing Janice’s controlling and manipulative ways, it would make sense that she take temporary custody of one of Michael’s sons to ensure that Michael followed her to Colorado Springs. If Janice had gone on to Colorado Springs without someone in hand, Michael could have remained behind in Fairbanks, Alaska. By taking custody of one of Michael’s sons, it ensured Michael would have to follow Janice to Colorado Springs.

I believe Janice is paranoid and has a fear of abandonment. After all, she is living a life of secrecy, looking over her shoulders, never knowing who to trust or what might pop up unexpectedly.

I was told that Michael’s daughter (older than the twin sons) moved out when she was young and married some boy or young man. This allegedly created a lot of stress with Michael and Janice. That daughter has supposedly signed up with the U.S. Army. The only reason I bring up the dramatic daughter situation is because it rings true to me. Michael’s daughter has endured a great deal of stress with the sudden upheaval from Columbus Georgia in 2007 and moving to Fairbanks.  Living in secrecy for all these years and being forbidden to have social media accounts like all the other teenagers has to take its toll on a young girl.

The physical address of the home they allegedly moved to in Colorado Springs is on Forsythe Drive near Fort Carson. I have the street number but I won’t post it simply because I cannot verify if Janice or Michael actually live in that specific home. I looked at the photo of the neighborhood in Google Street Maps and the home appears to be close to Hennings Drive and Forsythe Drive. The phone number they had was 719-xxx-1273. But supposedly, it was quickly disconnected when someone “tested” the phone number and a man (might be Michael or Janice daughter’s husband) picked up the phone, nervously replied “wrong number”, and hung up.

So, there you have it.  Michael and Janice appears to have made Colorado Springs their new home and they cleared out of Fairbanks Alaska sometime towards the end of 2011.

Continue reading »]]> Jonathan Klein, the so-called CEO of Getty Images is probably the biggest hypocrite at Getty Images. Letter recipients can only laugh and mock him when they listen to him spout off.

Jonathan Klein at MIDEM 2010 (Sep. 16, 2010)

He says:  Be willing to examine your business model. Don’t get obsessed with piracy. Be open to change. Be willing to cannibalize yourself. He talks about undue influence, pressure, and control over talent. How many times does he use the word “model”?

Jonathan Klein at MidemNet 2010 (Sept. 2010) Up to 2:40, then jump to 5:55.

He says: Can’t be too precious, don’t be too proud. 40,000 images/week is uploaded in iStockPhoto & every image is inspected and legally appropriate.

Jonathan Klein’s Interview with Financial Times (Aug. 26, 2011)

He says: Getty pays heavy dividends to its private equity investor.

Jonathan Klein at SXSW: TechCrunch Interview (March 2012)

Loves to spout off about revenue model and monetization.

Jonathan Klein at SXSW on Intellectual Property: TechCrunch Interview (March 2012)

The best video saved for last.  Biggest pile of doo-doo spoken here. The entire video should make your eyes roll.  Also, read the accompanying TechCrunch article to the “Intellectual Property”video.