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Author Topic: Help Exposing Higbee?  (Read 6511 times)

SueHappy

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Help Exposing Higbee?
« on: June 22, 2018, 12:47:13 PM »
Hi all,

I have purchased the domain name higbeeassociatesextortionists.com with the intention of having it developed in order to expose the Higbee operation.

An investigative reporter may also be interested in the story, and I would like to help with the research.

Please PM your stories. It doesn't matter if they started three years ago or yesterday, or if you "won" or "lost". We want to hear them all. Please tell me how you have been affected both professionally and personally. If you need/want to stay anonymous, that can be done.

FLBusiness

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Re: Help Exposing Higbee?
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2018, 11:49:20 PM »
Our company received a letter last month from Higbee, who claims to have been "hired" by PicRights.

I researched the cases they have filed outside of CA, and I've noticed a pattern. The initial complaint they file is largely boilerplate. They try to serve the defendant. In some cases, they fail, and the cases are dismissed. In some cases, they succeed. In the cases in which they successfully serve the defendant and the defendant hires a lawyer, the parties settled in, I think, every case I saw. In the cases in which they successfully serve the defendant but the defendant never replies to the complaint, the plaintiff moves for voluntary dismissal, usually days after the deadline expires for the defendant's reply.

Why? Of course I can't be sure, and I am not a lawyer. I wondered why the plaintiff does not move for summary judgement.

That option notwithstanding, I'm going to posit that the Higbees, Mathew and Melissa (aka Melissa Clark), decide the continued expense of pursuing a case against these small-time outfits isn't worth it. Out-of-state appearances court appearances require travel and are very costly for them.

What do others think?

We are still deciding what to do. The grief from continuing to interact with Higbee's people and dealing with this is not trivial, and it might be worth a few hundred dollars to make it go away. It also might be damaging to our reputation to have a lawsuit filed against us. On the other hand, it looks like most defendants win by just not hiring a lawyer and not responding.

icepick

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Re: Help Exposing Higbee?
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2018, 08:36:55 AM »
I don’t have any experience with PicRights, but if you did use an image without permission and can make it go away for a few hundred dollars I would certainly consider it. I think minimum copyright damages for innocent infringement are $200+ something so something close to that might be worth it. Higbee got greedy in his ask of me and added an extra 0, so he’s going to have to earn it from me.

clist

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Re: Help Exposing Higbee?
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2018, 01:33:36 PM »
I think minimum copyright damages for innocent infringement are $200+ something so something close to that might be worth it. Higbee got greedy in his ask of me and added an extra 0, so he’s going to have to earn it from me.

My thoughts exactly.
Knowledge isn't free - you have to pay attention.

u128245

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Re: Help Exposing Higbee?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2018, 10:17:05 PM »
See my post of today.     Does anyone have any followups on their 'small' cases?   Is ignoring their letter a viable strategy?

Matthew Chan

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Re: Help Exposing Higbee?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2018, 11:44:10 PM »
I don't like the idea of entirely ignoring a letter because you leave others to assume the worst about you and your situation. I think people should explain the merits of whatever their arguments are before going dark. There are generally mitigating circumstances but no one is mind-reader.

You bear the entire risk of ignoring it without communicating your issues of concerns to mitigate the motivate to escalate.  The problem is most people are trying to have it both ways.  They want someone to stop pursuing them for money but give no good reason to NOT pursue. 

Going dark is a "hope and pray" strategy. Not going to say it doesn't work because it occasionally does but you leave that ENTIRELY at the whims of the accusers.

See my post of today.     Does anyone have any followups on their 'small' cases?   Is ignoring their letter a viable strategy?
I'm a non-lawyer but not legally ignorant either. Under the 1st Amendment, I have the right to post facts & opinions using rhetorical hyperbole, colloquialisms, metaphors, parody, snark, or epithets. Under Section 230 of CDA, I'm only responsible for posts I write, not what others write.

 

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