Messages

1

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee & Assoc. Lists RM Media Ltd in Nick Youngson Template Lawsuit

« on: August 29, 2017, 10:57:33 AM »

Thanks Matthew. Do you know if Oscar Michelen is still doing the Defense Letter program? I have sent an email and called but not heard back, so wondering if he is no longer (or not currently) offering the program. Perhaps he is just busy, which is understandable of course.
Thanks.

2

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee & Assoc. Lists RM Media Ltd in Nick Youngson Template Lawsuit

« on: August 22, 2017, 10:44:58 AM »

Hello, just wanted to post here that my corporation has received this template lawsuit with the $5k demand.
I have posted previously - been dealing with this since Dec 2016.
It progresses from emails and 1 letter to more emails and letters to this particular letter with copy of the lawsuit. Same situation where it is from RM Media Ltd but the copyright is in Nicholas Youngson's name.
Thanks Mathew for pointing out the discrepancy in copyright ownership - definitely an important point.
Matthew, Robert or anyone here - Any other updates here recently or anyone seen actual lawsuits filed for Youngson especially in California? Thanks.
This is getting a bit crazy. Looks like they have a well-oiled machine going.

FYI Higbee does have several more lawsuits in the last few months, most notably several for the photographer Wild. Latest PACER list as below. Some are being closed out, but I don't know how to tell if these are settled.
party_name   court_id   cs_date_filed   cs_date_term   case_title

HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   8/4/2017      Rose Guerra v. Verizon Wireless et al
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   8/4/2017      David Behr v. Dataline Credit Corp. et al
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   7/21/2017      Alicia Ho v. Halsted Financial Services, LLC et al
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   7/14/2017      Jeffery R. Werner v. Zhenyu Song et al
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   7/7/2017      Alexander Wild v. Nakia J. Isaac
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   6/15/2017      Michael Grecco Productions, Inc. v. Wrapmarket, LLC.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   5/25/2017      Wild v. Webtegrity, LLC.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txsdce   5/22/2017      Sadowski v. BackChina, LLC.
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   5/17/2017   8/17/2017   Jeremy Nicholl v. Here Media, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   5/11/2017      Wild v. Advanced Termite Control, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txsdce   5/5/2017   5/31/2017   Wild v. Cypress Creek Pest Control, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   4/12/2017   8/2/2017   Wild v. JASCO, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   cacdce   3/27/2017   8/1/2017   Alexander Wild v. Legacy Termite Control, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   3/27/2017   5/15/2017   Wild v. Atlanta Environmental Pest Services, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   3/27/2017   6/13/2017   Wild v. Allergy & Asthma Associates of Connecticut, LLC.
HIGBEE, MATHEW K   wawdce   3/24/2017      Keatley v. Los Angeles Review of Books et al
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txsdce   3/23/2017      Skoogfors v. Connie Barnaba & Associates, Inc.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   3/8/2017   7/27/2017   Wild v. Evergreen Growers Supply, LLC.
HIGBEE, MATHEW KIDMAN   txwdce   3/7/2017   5/8/2017   Wild v. Florida Environmental Pest Management, Inc.

3

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: April 04, 2017, 01:44:26 PM »

Want to share some research that seems relevant to me - ignore if this is already well known on these threads.
Please see http://www.nyphotographic.com/about.html (text quoted below in case these guys take the page down)
It is quite evident as per his own documented timeline that Youngson started  releasing images clearly marked as "CC-attribution sharealike" only after Apr 2015 and even as late as Oct/Dec 2015 presumably not all his images were clearly marked. So if you got his images before say Dec 2015, it's likely that they may have been perceived as public domain.
It's a nuance but an important one IMHO.
Thanks.

--- text ---
News

June 2014

Just found lots of my images being used without a license - I am sure these people don't go around stealing things so what is it about images that makes them feel they can help themselves?

July 2015

For those people that insist on using my images without paying I have now released a number on a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license which means they can be used for free as long as certain attribution and license links are provided close to the image, please contact me for further details.

October 2015

More images released on a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license - a lot of people are following the terms of the license but a lot aren't and just helping themselves to the images so to those people don't use my images without the correct attribution or else paying for them.

December 2015

I am spending my days locating my images that are being used without a valid license, emailing people asking them to pay the license fee and most are ignoring me.

I am now thoroughly fed up with this situation so as from now any site using my images without a valid license and being used to promote a service, I am going to pass straight to my attorney to deal with. I can't be expected to spend my days emailing people infringing my copyright only to get ignored or abused so now they can deal with my attorney.

This only applies to web sites being run to promote a service such as legal services, banks, real estate companies etc - people who should know better than to ignore licensing requirements. Often these sites are managed by professional web site designers who are presumably charging their clients for adding my images to the client's sites without a license!

Sites run by individuals not promoting a service will continue to receive an email asking them for my standard license fee of a few dollars.

April 2016

My advisers have recommended I become incorporated so I now trade as a UK Limited company but everything else remains the same - you can see the company details on my contact page.

4

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Nicholas Youngson Photographer (Rep. by Higbee Associates) Copyright Abuse

« on: April 04, 2017, 01:35:46 PM »

@nycopyrightabuse - will you be  sharing the anonymized, quantified results you use for your company's response (based on the google form) with this community? That would be great and can be quoted by others in their response as well. Thanks.

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 sued

Now, 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:

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

There is attribution language at the bottom of the image:

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.

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:

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].

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 confusion

This 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: [email protected]

5

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: April 04, 2017, 01:33:12 PM »

Matthew and @buddhapi - thanks for your notes. Just want to close this out re. the image search.
I guess you guys see this  day in, day out so it is quite evident to you but it's not as obvious to many of us, hence the questions.
" It is well known that copyright registration/listing system is woefully inadequate." - no, I did not know this, pretty much trusted it would have accurate records. Oh well.
And " But what if they say, it's a mistake then offer up another registration for you?" - yes, I suppose they  could do this. I assumed it was "Due diligence" on my part to verify their claims. Saw that others like nycopyrightabuse are also doing this and have even asked Higbee to provide the images included in the registration, which they seem to have refused.
"I am not sure you understand how the extortion scheme works or what is being said to you. Many people who successfully fight and resist their letters use far simpler strategies than trying to comb through the copyright registration system." -
not as much as many on this forum, but I do understand it and have spoken to Matthew and Oscar about it too, in addition to speaking with copyright lawyers and litigation lawyers (dealing with it for a few months now). I have not come across any simpler strategies  than "wait it out and see if they file a lawsuit, or join Oscar's defense letter program (in my case he himself advised against it for now), or hire an attorney to send a letter and/or negotiate a settlement". If there are other strategies you have shared elsewhere on this forum, please do point me to them.
For now I have not spent the $100.
Thanks!

Someco,

Spending $100 to do a blind search for a particular image is an absolute waste of time and money. How many searches will you do?  It is well known that copyright registration/listing system is woefully inadequate. But if you want to spend the time and effort, feel free to report back your results if we are wrong.

The discussion of investing $100 per search is going down a rabbit hole. I am not sure you understand how the extortion scheme works or what is being said to you. Many people who successfully fight and resist their letters use far simpler strategies than trying to comb through the copyright registration system.

And if you do corroborate the image, what do you do then?  You are betting at least $100 that the copyright registration is false.  But what if they say, it's a mistake then offer up another registration for you?  You going to spend yet another $100 for another search?

6

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Nicholas Youngson Photographer (Rep. by Higbee Associates) Copyright Abuse

« on: April 04, 2017, 01:15:34 PM »

Just want to thank Matthew Chan, nycopyrightabuse, kingkendall and others for the latest research. It looks like this is escalating. Does anyone have information about what types of legal/ethics violations to cite if making a CA Bar complaint against Mathew Higbee? Please do share. Somehow this operation should have a class action, but otherwise mass CA bar complaints can be the next best thing.
Also has anyone settled with them? My understanding from glancing at past posts is that even more-than-reasonable-sounding amounts like $750 etc have not been accepted. I'm not yet planning to settle but that's the amount a lawyer recommended I offer (i.e. make it worthwhile for Higbee to agree to your offer by offering an amount where 30-40% of it, which is likely his cut, is a decent amount).

FYI for my case - they went away for a couple of months and are now back with the "case manager" emails with grammatical errors et al. The recent text is "This case has escalated to my desk to assist Mr. Higbee in hope to resolve this mater without moving forward with litigation. I will be your point of contact before our litigation team takes over. Please advise if you like to make a reasonable offer to get this matter resolve." I am debating what to do, if anything.

FYI I found this information in another Higbee/Youngson thread on this forum very important for people mulling whether to settle at  some point or keep waiting - it seems that one of the community members discovered that Higbee has indeed filed federal court lawsuits (not yet on behalf of Youngson). http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/photog-nick-youngson-(higbee-assoc-)-lists-rm-media-ltd-in-template-lawsuit/msg20919/#msg20919.
While getting a lawsuit is not a big deal, for most tiny businesses and startups and even closed-out businesses which didn't take their websites down (many of their victims), $400-500/hr for lawyer fees (and some large retainer in some cases) is likely impossible, and Higbee knows this, and is banking on this. My (extremely limited, amateur) understanding is that while individuals can represent themselves in court (pro se), corporations need legal representation to do anything, including respond to something. (If this is not correct, please do chime in here) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-california-corporations-represent-themselves-nathan-mubasher.
Thanks, hope this helps.

7

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: February 15, 2017, 12:28:46 PM »

Hi @buddhapi, thanks. Yes, you can use this to check that a copyright exists, that it is under Nick Youngson's name, and that it is for images. However you cannot see what specific content is included in that copyright. Multiple images may be part of the same copyright and you cannot see the actual images contained in it. Now perhaps we can assume that Higbee has a smart enough operation that he will ensure the image copyright information is correct - but IMHO (and attorneys I have consulted) it is always prudent to check whether the image in question for you is actually copyrighted. In order to get the actual images under a specific copyright registration, the copyright office gave me the procedure I listed above. Please let me know if you have found a better way. Thanks.

8

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: February 03, 2017, 01:38:06 PM »

@BuddhaPi - yes, definitely. If I respond again, it will be with a bunch of demands including the detailed registration info. However as far as I can find out, the only way to search the copyright database for free is by going in person to the Washington DC location - which I can't do. From what the copyright office told me via email, the only other way to do it is $100 payment so they can pull the deposited images. If you know other ways, please do share!
Thanks!

9

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: February 02, 2017, 06:47:45 PM »

I've posted previously about being one of the targets, looks like there's a lot of us.
Some useful info I found, FYI for all -
- if you want to check whether the image is actually included in the copyright they sent you, you can do so by "inspecting the copyright deposit". It costs $100. The copyright office said "Processing your request will begin once the U.S. Copyright Office receives the payment of applicable fees. To expedite receipt of payment, we recommend calling Records Research and Certification at 202-707-6787 to submit payment by credit card.  The office is open Monday through Friday (except holidays), from 8:30am - 5:00pm EST. A staff member will assist you with payment." Email [email protected]
- some informal legal advice I got was to keep any response minimal - "removed image" or some such. There is personal liability possible even if this was done through a corporation etc i.e. it seems copyright infringement, if proven, can "pierce the corporate veil" for personal liability for statutory damages or other settlement. I don't know all the legal details here by a long shot, so this is not legal advice, but just be careful what you share with them.

Thanks to folks who are sharing their approach - ignore it, negotiate (seems like they go as low as $750), threaten to counter-sue for entrapment. I let them know the image was removed etc - they continue to harass via email and letter. I am getting legal advice before I decide whether to ignore, settle, or what. But my heart rate is more normalized now that I have the support of this forum. Needless to say this is an unneeded and unwelcome waste of time and $ :-s
Thanks.

10

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: December 13, 2016, 08:02:29 PM »

First of all, thanks to Matthew Chan and everyone else for bringing to light the doings of Nick Youngson and Higbee Associates. I'm glad I found this forum.
I have received a fairly threatening letter from Mathew Higbee about one image which was on my tiny startup's business website, and is currently on Nick Youngson's nyphotographic site for $9.95. It is a generic image (we already replaced it with another very similar and free, CC0 image from pixabay.com). Higbee is asking for $5k in a letter that even stretches the clauses of 17USC504 to their limit (in my legal-amateur understanding).
We had absolutely no intention of infringing any copyright and we obtained this file from a CC0 site in Nov 2015, as our download timestamp shows (unfortunately it seems we lost records as to which site is the source for this specific image. All other images on our site are from pixabay.com, pexels.com and a commons search and we have records for all others as being CC0).  It looks like we must have downloaded one of Mr Youngson's last CC0 images during/before the period he started his "crusade". http://www.nyphotographic.com/about.html.
We have of course immediately removed the image from our website within hours of receiving the letter.
In addition to any response advice folks on this forum may have, we have 4 questions:
1. Should we respond ourselves and see what happens, or just bite the bullet and get a lawyer to write a letter? (Not sure if the Letter Writing program on this site applies to non-Getty cases?)
e.g. we could respond stating: (a) no intent to infringe (b) we downloaded from a CC0 site (c) we have removed the image immediately (d) (still debating whether to include something like this - thoughts?) offer to settle for license fee of $9.95 + 200% penalty or approx $30 which seems fair.
If they continue to send letters, we would respond asking for all kinds of information as suggested in some of the other forum threads.
2. It looks like even if we can't prove we downloaded from a CC0 site (we are still trying to find records), the infringement is for not having attribution. We have not modified the image. Does this help us in any way?
3. The copyright they stated is for a set of image(s). I have written to the copyright office to get info on which images are included. Is there anything else to do to figure out if he explicitly has copyright on this image?
3. Nick Youngson and his company seem to be registered in the UK, not the US. Does this affect anything?
Thanks!