Carner wants us to let cooler heads prevail and move forward with CSI and HAN. He want us to accept a kinder, gentler form of framing extortionate collection messaging, whether written or spoken. He wants us to put the past (and present) behind us and give him our views on how he could build a business model we can all live with.
However, I strongly believe actions have consequences and the past actions of CSI, HAN and VKT are no exception. There are NO exceptions to that rule in my book.
I would also like to address the courage issue. As I said, I don't believe what Carner is doing takes any courage, just lots of chutzpah (or "unmitigated audacity" as Frank Zappa would define it). Many people in this forum have shown REAL courage, and the list is so long I won't even start for fear of leaving anyone out.
Most of all, though, I'd like to say that there is one person who has been the MOST courageous because his courage involves not just talking about the abuse of process and educating people, but taking REAL action and truly standing for what's right even if he stands alone. He says what he means and he means what he says.
That would be Michael of Aloha Plastic Surgery. My hat will always be off to him for what he's doing regardless of the outcome.
Having said that, I do have some positive feedback for Glen Carner. In my opinion, what he could do to improve CSI's business model in the future are the following items, in order of urgency:
1) Drop the civil action against APS and take your $200 fee for innocent infringement. Offer to pay for APS's legal fees to date.
2) Use all your persuasion skills to convince APS to drop the countersuit. I think APS would be more than glad to drop the case and move on. No harm, no foul.
3) Change your model so that the first contact is a professionally drafted C&D with very specific information about the ownership of the image(s) in question, and how far you're willing to go to protect your clients' intellectual property. Maybe hire Oscar to write you a proper and ethical C&D letter to ask for the $200 innocent infringement fee. This will be enough to cover a form letter sent by your staff to innocent infringers. If the other party refuses to comply and/or pay the innocent infringement fee, THEN you can send a specific account of the legal actions you will take and how much money you're going to expect, or even take them to court if they're totally defiant. That would not be extortion at all. That's pure and legitimate copyright enforcement.
4) Blatant, serial infringers you can treat with the present model, and I'm sure the ELI community would even support that. For example, the THOUSANDS of wallpaper sites. I don't think anyone from ELI would have any sympathy for the infringers. In fact, no reasonable person would hold that against anyone else. I can give you a list of 12 websites hosted by ISPs controlled by Softlayer.com. That's $120,000 if you get $10,000 per infringement. I can show your staff how to find hundreds more, right here in the USA, some of them so close to where I live I could drive over and put them in a headlock for you.
5) After items 1-4 are completed, come back into the fold with ELI and show us that you really want to protect your clients' IP and not profit grotesquely from innocent infringements. I will personally put you on my IP protection White List, and I think the ELI community would too. I have proposed to the ELI community to create a White List for intellectual property protection vendors as well as stock photo companies. Heck, any of us could actually need help with a blatant infringement of OUR intellectual property.
If the litigation with APS does not go the way you may be envisioning, you could end up receiving a very serious financial setback and a serious blow to your companies' reputation and even your reputation as an individual. If any of the serious charges you are being accused of can be proven beyond reasonable doubt, you could end up in real prison and that won't work for CSI or HAN unless you have a very efficient and loyal staff that is willing to keep your doors open for a few years while you wear orange jumpsuits and print license plates. Like S.G. said, this isn't a game. It's for real and the stakes are very high.
I know this is a radical departure from what you're doing now, but you can do this. It's really your choice.
If you can bring yourself to make these moves, we won't call you a troll anymore. In fact we'll sing the praises of a company that is willing to revise their methods to be fair and balanced. We'll practically hump your leg for reconsidering your methods and becoming a shining example of how copyright enforcement can be handled with fairness and propriety.
If you can bring yourself to do these things, I will be the first to say you're a VERY courageous person, Carner. It takes a really courageous person to admit that one is wrong and to do something to make things right. I think the ELI community will reward you for doing the right thing and doing it the right way.
I assure you, Mr. Carner, that I am being very serious and sincere about this, and about Fair Elections too.
Topic: A Man of Principal and Not Interest (Read 26889 times)