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Nicholas Youngson Photographer (Rep. by Higbee Associates) Copyright Abuse

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nycopyrightabuse:
Hello, I represent a U.S. company (name redacted as the complaint is proceeding) that received a settlement demand letter from Higbee & Associates (represented by Matthew Higbee) on behalf of Nicholas Youngson - the photographer and owner of http://nyphotographic.com.

The reason I am posting is because we believe that Mr. Youngson is engaging in copyright abuse by engaging in deceptive and misleading business practices. That is, he is freely distributing his images and encouraging others to use them only to later issue settlement demand letters over copyright infringement.

I am going to explain the situation and ask the community for help in order to substantiate the claim that Mr. Youngson's business practices are a pattern of behavior (impacting many people) and he is well aware of the nuances of his actions.

The initial complaint by Youngson/Higbee
Higbee's initial complaint to us alleges that we used images on our website that violate his copyright. For brevity, I am only going to include evidence related to one image.

Full complaint link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZbRXn38e7SVTBtak9JdzBsRzA/view?usp=sharing

Here is a summary of the complaint:

* Mr. Youngson's images are copyrighted (as of August, 2016)
* We used five images on our website without a "license"
* Mr. Higbee demanded the sum of $20,000.00 or otherwise we will be suedNow, here is a link to the image in question -
"Obamacare Scrabble": https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZbRXn38e7SeWhwMXVjeTRta1E/view?usp=sharing

Investigation and findings
We spent weeks investigating the matter and found some strange oddities with regards to how Mr. Youngson operates his photography business.

First, he distributes his images for a fee on his primary website, http://nyphotographic.com.

However, he also owns and operates a number of other image websites (the Mirrors), as many people in this community know:

* Mirror websites
* http://jphotostyle.com/
* http://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/
* http://www.picserver.org/On his Mirror website, we obtained the same image from this URL: http://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/wooden-tile/o/obamacare.html

Note that at the top of the image, there is the following language:

--- Quote ---The image below related to the word Obamacare is licensed by it's creator under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license which permits the free use of the image for any purpose including commercial use and also permits the image to be modified, see license details below.
Please ensure the license and image size are suitable for your use, alternatively you can purchase the original full size image on a rights managed license for a few dollars from NYPhotographic.com here
--- End quote ---

There is attribution language at the bottom of the image:

--- Quote ---Free License permits: Sharing, copying and redistributing in any medium or format including adapting, remixing, transforming, and building upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Attribution required.
--- End quote ---

Additionally, Mr. Youngson has images from his Mirror websites indexed by Google images and listed as "Free for commercial use with modification."

See the Google search result: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZbRXn38e7SMFVDejk5ZzNnTDA/view?usp=sharing

But he does not allow his images to be indexed under the same licensing rights for his primary domain where he sells images.

Summary
In short, Mr. Youngson encourages others to take and use his images on Mirror websites, but sells them on his main website.

Interpretation
By distributing his images on the Mirror websites and presenting sparse and vague licensing information up front, there is a high possibility of confusion. It is this confusion that prompts any logical reader to ask the following questions:

* Does Mr. Youngson own and operate the Mirror websites?
* Why does Mr. Youngson allow the distribution of his copyrighted works on the Mirror websites?
* Why does Mr. Youngson allow Google to index images on the Mirror websites with a “labeled for reuse” license?
* Why does the copy on the Mirror websites prominently highlight free use language, while burying the attribution clause at the bottom?
* Given Mr. Youngson’s core business of copyright licensing/collection and the plethora of other cases involving his Mirror websites, why hasn’t he reached out to the webmaster or modified the language in the copy of the Mirror websites to reduce end-user confusion?Indeed, a reply from Mr. Higbee's office yielded the following response:

--- Quote ---Each one of those domains mentioned is owned and managed by our client, Nick Youngson. He uses them as a platform to showcase his work. As I am sure you are aware, each image is available through a creative commons license. The terms of the Creative Commons 3.0 license can be found on the URLS that your [sic] provided. It also states that the top of the web page that attribution is required [sic].
--- End quote ---

Mr. Youngson is well-aware that his licensing/distribution causes confusion when reasonable parties look for images on the web and his counsel has not addressed the confusion in any capacity.

Abuse of copyright
In knowing that his distribution is the root-cause of the problem, Mr. Youngson has done nothing to amend his business practices. Instead, he has teamed up with a law firm (Higbee & Associates) to track down individuals who fall prey to this sort of "entrapment." Had his licensing terms and attribution stipulations been more prominently listed on his Mirror websites, I highly doubt many reasonable parties would use his images.

By allowing others to use and download his images under these circumstances, I believe that Mr. Youngson may be violating the U.S. Copyright laws by engaging in deceptive and misleading practices in an effort to gain settlement compensation.

We're asking for the community's help
We would like to conclude our business with Mr. Youngson and also ensure that others don't fall victim to the same deceitful enterprise. To do that, we must clearly establish a pattern of behavior by Mr. Youngson in the following areas:

* Mr. Youngson is aware that his Mirror websites cause end-user confusion with reasonable parties looking for images
* Mr. Youngson has pursued numerous copyright violations claims on the basis of his distribution on his Mirror website
* Mr. Youngson refuses to amend the copy in his Mirror websites because he continues to profit from the confusionThis is the part where we need the community's help: if you have been impacted by a similar scenario involving Mr. Youngson's Mirror websites (listed above), please fill out the form linked below.

https://goo.gl/forms/1v2I0uIyfLcF4PEj1

Only include information you feel comfortable sharing. The replies will not be shared with the public (or anyone else) by myself or the company. If you do share your name, email and an incident summary, it will greatly increase the likelihood that Mr. Youngson will be prompted to amend his business practices and provide clear language on his Mirror websites. We only intend to share the total number of legitimate replies we receive with Mr. Higbee's firm.

Thank you all very much in advance. I hope that our effort in this endeavor will minimize the instance of settlement demand letters for ourselves and others.

You can also share any private emails with me using this dedicated email address: nyoungsoncopyrightabuse@gmail.com

nycopyrightabuse:
Update
Thank you all so much for the positive Google form response rate. We have received numerous replies (mostly from attorneys in the same situation as us) indicating that we are not the only ones going through the same nuisance. Our next reply to Higbee & Company will include total response data (no personal information included, as promised) in order to show that their enterprise of demand letter extortion is not acceptable and a pattern of misconduct.

Defender:
Thanks for posting this.  Please keep us updated as to the status of your situation.

ih8trolls:
Yes, please keep use posted on any progress. Higbee seems to be taking more of an aggressive approach at least in my situation.

Matthew Chan:
I am going to chime in here as I feel a bit uncomfortable with some aspects of the post by nycopyrightabuse.

I am uncomfortable with the solicitation of information from the ELI Community without any disclosure who you are. If you are a lawyer, you should be disclosing your identity.

And if you are NOT a lawyer, you have asked people to entrust their private information to someone who has no standing or credibility. You are simply an anonymous account at this point. You purport to be a victim and you might well be but I am wary of anyone trying to obtain other people's information when you are yourself posting anonymously.

I have sent a private email to the email address listed regarding this matter.

For people reading, I understand the desire to share information and to assist one another. However, how does anyone know that it isn't Higbee, Nick Youngson, or someone related to them trying to collect information from anonymous readers here?

I will not allow an information honeypot to exist here. I don't believe that is the case here but the potential for foul play exists.

For that reason, I exercise LOTS OF CAUTION before giving any information to an unknown party of has NOT identified themselves, not matter how good their intentions might be.

Until I get clarification directly from the author, I am redacting the email address in the interest of community security.

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