Free Baitpapers

[Matthew Chan]

I don't want to overstep my boundary but I have asked EVNL to go another step further in the story in revealing additional info which she has not yet done. Some of you might be surprised.

EVNL, thank you for sharing your story.

It's remarkable to me that there are men and women practicing law who have hardened themselves to the point where money is apparently the only thing that has meaning for them. I honesty don't understand how these people can ignore the genuine pain they inflict on others with their outrageous and perverted demands for settlements.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

BS is 'Brandon Give Me Ten Grand Sand'....

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

Extortion-Victim-No Longer, thanks for sharing your experience here.
This is the sort of thing that drives me; fighting the copyright trolls' use of over-the-top tactics, and the human cost of that.
Your case illustrates the lies and the intimidation tactics used.

Sounds like things are better for you now, and I'm sure that I speak for everyone here when I say that I'm glad for that.

S.G.

Thanks SoylentGreen! It's what drove me to sharing my story, so others could read about it & not feel so alone...

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

Thanks for sharing EVNL, I realize it is difficult as we all know that we are "not special"
among the many many cases. However, the emotion can still remain raw.

One does not forget the same "fear" and the "shame" of feeling they've done something wrong despite their best efforts to make sure that they've done their homework and are not infringing on someone's copyright. Lastly, one does not forget the feeling of "stupidity" which one knows is not a legal defense. I am reminded however of the saying, "let the punishment be proportionate to the crime".

As disgusted as I am and have been over this issue, I have to say that this one takes the cake! "5 years in prison" and "10,000.00 for ONE image" is appalling at best

Thanks Peeved, only someone who has gone through it knows how raw those feelings run! ELI is the best place to regain the courage that is needed to fight back...

[milosron]

I would also like to thank ENVL for sharing her story.  I just sent a 2nd reply to "my" lawyer which I will share with all of you whenever I get a reply from him.  "My" photographer resides in Denver and I note that the Denver Post, and I am sure all newspapers, solicits news tips.  Also please consider filing a complait at www.ic3.gov the FBI's internet crime web site. I haven't gone either route yet but plan to, dependent upon how my lawyer responds. 

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

I would also like to thank ENVL for sharing her story.  I just sent a 2nd reply to "my" lawyer which I will share with all of you whenever I get a reply from him.  "My" photographer resides in Denver and I note that the Denver Post, and I am sure all newspapers, solicits news tips.  Also please consider filing a complait at www.ic3.gov the FBI's internet crime web site. I haven't gone either route yet but plan to, dependent upon how my lawyer responds.

Thank you, I was/am glad to have share it with you all! & Good Luck & Stay Strong!

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

EVNL - I now feel like a chump for quaking in my boots over $2310.00.  I can empathize with the emotion - I'm still knee deep in my fight and I can't remember the last time I had a decent nights sleep. It is comforting to know that we are not alone in this.  Sure, we have to make a stand in our own cases - but we aren't the only one's making a stand.

Dieselfish...Not sleeping at night is one of the hardest side effects of this kind of threat & intrusion a "shakedown Letters' brings on. Just to try to silence the mind in the middle of the night while your brain plays out the worst scenarios for the ultimate outcome. Hang in there...it will pass & one day you will be stronger for it & you are definitely not alone...

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

EVNL, thank you for sharing your story.

It's remarkable to me that there are men and women practicing law who have hardened themselves to the point where money is apparently the only thing that has meaning for them. I honesty don't understand how these people can ignore the genuine pain they inflict on others with their outrageous and perverted demands for settlements.

Thanks Mulligan...That is so accurate & bang on what you have said here! It really shocked me how apparent this became throughout my ordeal. It all came down to money no matter the emotional cost.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

Prison? for 5 years they actually threatened you with this??

Just when I thought my respect level for Hawaiian Art Network could go no lower, I read this!

I am literally besides myself!

Buddhapi...The threat of 5 years in jail was included in the 'Demand Letter' because I was accused of removing his copyright signature...His signature VKT was never on the image I found from the 'freewallpapers' website.  Strange, the link suddenly says page not found but the image still appears. It was up & running very recently.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://fwallpapers.com/files/images/road-hana-turquoise-lagoon-maui-hawaii.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fwallpapers.com/view/road-hana-turquoise-lagoon-maui-hawaii&usg=__G2huN_098plvFFevENfvF1yejXQ=&h=1200&w=1600&sz=662&hl=en&start=84&zoom=1&tbnid=dhcZY3kpBMATnM:&tbnh=158&tbnw=204&ei=zzKwTYTxJYrSsAPD0JTlCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhawaii%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1659%26bih%3D841%26tbm%3Disch0%2C2140&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=936&vpy=327&dur=3308&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=98&ty=109&page=4&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:84&biw=1659&bih=841

Then the lawyer BS reminded me by email that if I didn't pay, that his client takes infringement of his work very seriously & that they would go through with a full force prosecution both civil & criminal.
We also discussed it over the phone, very intensely as I begged him to believe me telling him how frightened I was to go to jail & all he said was pay or make a reasonable offer.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

& also by email.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

Thanks Matthew!

I don't know how it would have all turned out without you & Oscar...You two were the first to bring a smile to my face for weeks! You made me laugh & grin again...started sleeping well. I owe my greatest thanks to you & Oscar!

Thanks for getting the courage to finally share your story.  As you can see, your story is very moving to our readers. I daresay that he caved in very quickly at $300 because he was getting lots of heat. Plus, when you have a young, inexperienced lawyer with minimal track record going up against Oscar, it will not be pretty.

You have the unfortunate distinction of being the one of the first HAN cases ELI heard about. We are glad you found ELI and Oscar to help you.

You did pay a heavy emotional price. But your story will impact and move many people.  Many people have shared their stories but yours is probably the most egregious we have heard thus far. Chalk it up to the genius of Hawaiian Art Network's executive management and supreme lawyer-hiring ability.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

One last point I would like to make...It is PS that has the software to troll through the internet to find the offensive match. They notify the Artist/Gallery who then decides to pursue it or not. Then a winning case would provide a commission split between all  involved, including the lawyer & correct me if I am wrong but PS gains in this too...If anyone knows the full extent of how ramped these images are been posted all over the internet, it would be PS. They would have records because of the nature of their software. PS must have to sort through tons of possible cases before they find one worth pursuing or maybe they have the freewallpaper sites on auto-ignore. It just goes back to the theory that it is all a willing team effort, front to back.

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

I don't want to overstep my boundary but I have asked EVNL to go another step further in the story in revealing additional info which she has not yet done. Some of you might be surprised.

EVNL, thank you for sharing your story.

It's remarkable to me that there are men and women practicing law who have hardened themselves to the point where money is apparently the only thing that has meaning for them. I honesty don't understand how these people can ignore the genuine pain they inflict on others with their outrageous and perverted demands for settlements.

Hi Matthew,

I presumed all would make the connection...that I was the first one who contacted ELI regarding HAN & Brandon Give Me Ten Grand Sand's Settlement Demand Letter months ago. Thank you Matthew for being so patient with me to share my story...

[Moe Hacken]

You're quite right.  Go to the link that "Extortion-Victim-No Longer" provided in a previous post:

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://fwallpapers.com/files/images/road-hana-turquoise-lagoon-maui-hawaii.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fwallpapers.com/view/road-hana-turquoise-lagoon-maui-hawaii&usg=__G2huN_098plvFFevENfvF1yejXQ=&h=1200&w=1600&sz=662&hl=en&start=84&zoom=1&tbnid=dhcZY3kpBMATnM:&tbnh=158&tbnw=204&ei=zzKwTYTxJYrSsAPD0JTlCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhawaii%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1659%26bih%3D841%26tbm%3Disch0%2C2140&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=936&vpy=327&dur=3308&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=98&ty=109&page=4&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:84&biw=1659&bih=841

Download the picture.  Now go to Google, click on "Images", click on the little camera icon next to the search box, click on "upload image", browse to the image that you downloaded and click "open".
Next scroll down to "Pages that include matching images", look at the listed pages.

The photo appears on more than 89 "FREE" wallpaper sites on the first 26 Google search pages alone.

Many will recall that the image in question was the subject of the infamous "Brandon Sand" extortion letter, seeking an astonishing $10,000.
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/brandon-sand-extortion-web.pdf

I'd say that Hawaiian Art Network and photographer Tylor have a credibility problem.

S.G.

Brilliant tip, Soylent Green! I used this technique on a HAN/VKT image. I got about 270 unique results, almost all on free wallpaper or free stock image sites, none of them showing the copyright mark they accuse people of removing without having any proof. I did not know Google had the image matching search capability. You could say it's the ethical version of what the PicScout black hat crawler does.

[Activated]

Aloha... I am new in this forum. I am another of the latest people being targeted by VKT & HAR. I was very pleased to find this site. I have been reading for 3 days now.  At this point I have only had phone and email contact with a woman connected with HAN and Copyright Services International. I noticed in a blog that said CSI is no longer in service. I know one of the emails I received had a CSI address. I would be interested in being part of a collective of people who are dealing with this issue. I am anticipating that I will be receiving an extortion letter soon. I was given a month to pay the "discounted" rate! When I first got the call I was horrified and have spend days not sleeping well and consumed with fear. I hope that I will not receive a letter and that this just goes away... Time will tell.  I hope this doesn't post twice.