Retired Forums > Riddick/Imageline Letter Forum
Riddick and Imageline sued in Federal Court
riddickvictim2:
This lawsuit comes as great news to all of us long time Riddick victims. This man is clearly disturbed and a threat to himself and the public. I truly believe that he will one day face criminal charges. Maybe then, the threatening emails from Riddick will stop and we can all move on in peace.
Matthew Chan:
Yes, Getty has a propensity to exaggerate and prey on the legal ignorance of the people they pursue. They also do a good job training their $15/hr interns the sing the party line. IN my mind, I always think about how it will actually play out in a reasonable court of law.
Regarding Riddick, I honestly believe he thinks what he is doing is right and he is fighting for a cause. The problem with his position is that some of it is irrational and illogical. His long-winded threats and windbag explanations tries to mask that he has little or no bullets in his gun. He also relies on the ignorance of his victims. The sheer persistence of his attacks can be overwhelming to some people. Some people cave in, others fight back and lash out.
I am quite certain Getty, Riddick, and Masterfile hate this website and the fact a heavy-hitter like Oscar Michelen is on the case. I honestly think this website and Oscar Michelen are the biggest thorns against their ongoing demand letter campaigns. We have educated too many people on the issues.
I don't necessarily think he singled out Bernina. It is just when you hit enough people, the "right" party will actually do something about it and fight back. My own story was not terribly unlike many other people's situations. The biggest thing that was different with me is that I don't like being bullied and threatened. So I am willing to aggressively fight back. If someone points a gun my way, they better shoot to kill because when I get back up, I am coming after you. I do hold grudges and I believe in payback. That is the whole reason why this website was created to begin with. Obviously, the anger I originally had has since subsided but this website continues to exist to help others. :-)
MatthewC
SoylentGreen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, Riddick's the worst. Masterfile and Getty
> are Copyright Trolls. But, Riddick's the
> Copyright Nazi.
>
> The Copyright Trolls do bully and even stretch the
> truth quite a bit in their claims in order to
> intimidate. But, the tactics employed by Riddick
> are really over the top. He took on quite a bit
> of risk by doing this. I wonder if this is just
> his nature, or has he become braver and more bold
> over time due to past conquests - the thought of
> which I find chilling indeed.
>
> In a past post, he did say that he was going after
> larger companies rather than the small guys such
> as bloggers. I guess that he was serious. Yes...
> there are surely some past (or present) victims
> watching this closely. I mean, was he only
> concentrating on Bernina?
>
> S.
riddickvictim2:
And we are extremely grateful for your efforts, Matthew!
SoylentGreen:
Matthew,
I think that you're probably right about Riddick. He should have sought legal advice before he did anything, too.
The type of product that Riddick's Imageline sells appears to be of the type that was more popular about 12 -15 years ago. I don't mean this as any kind of insult. When people had much less bandwidth and things took a long time to download, "vector" type clipart could be made into GIFs that were of extremely small file size. These days bandwidth is much less of an issue, with photographic or sophisticated graphic art taking precedence. He's probably seen the value and market of whatever collection that he has shrink greatly. That is no excuse for his actions, of course. Perhaps, he should have changed with the times?
I think that Riddick's actions may already have damaged the reputation of the stock image industry as a whole. Many companies and individuals are getting wind of the "extortion letter" schemes. People that are well-read on the subject may recognize that some companies are much worse than others in their tactics. But, the average person who hears about what's going on would likely think to themselves, "look at what these scamming stock image companies are doing!" They're just thinking of the "industry" as a whole, unless they dig further (and how many people actually take the time to research it?). In such cases, some damage has been done. How many of these people were potential customers is anyone's guess.
I'm surprised that some of the news media hasn't picked up on the "extortion letter" schemes yet. I'm tempted to approach a few news-magazine style shows, and I'd love to see some cameras and a reporter stop by the offices of Getty, Masterfile, or whatever dank swamp Riddick lives in.
I'm a lot like you, I think. I can tell you that when a situation like yours arose, I fought them every step of the way like an immovable object. Of course, there's always a possibly that they could have won, but they would have had to go through every single step of a very annoying and torturous route, and I made that clear. I'd never just "give" them anything just because I got few letters and calls. They should "prove their case", and if they can't actually go to court, then they can't be very confident in their position.
You and Oscar have definitely set up a great resource!! There's nobody else to turn to; nobody else took the time to do it. How many people have stopped having so many sleepless nights after coming to the site - we may never really know. But, it's probably a significant number of people. No wonder the site's so popular. Thank you!!
S.
riddickvictim2:
I have read the complaint twice now (it gives me such pleasure) and will likely read it again several more times. The exhibits are a disturbing look into Riddick's world. The baseless, utterly unprofessional and personal attacks on the attorney in this case are reminiscent of the brash and distasteful verbal attacks unleashed upon Matthew by Mr. Riddick through this very forum. These are the rants of someone unstable and with obvious anger issues. I do chuckle at the George'isms such as "over there," "up there." and "down here." "The pirates are on the shores of Montezuma!"
I know that you are careful to monitor these post, Matthew, for relevancy and adherence to the facts involved. I would expect however, that there may be many posts to come expressing adulation for Bernina USA, Mr. Michelen and yourself.
I will again make a contribution via PayPal to support this vital resource.
Keep up the good fight, Matthew!
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