Below is my open reply to
George Riddick's Email to ExtortionLetterInfo.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Riddick,
Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I appreciate the civil and respectful tone because I half-expected that when I started reporting on you, you might be inclined to become unpleasant and attempt to threaten me as you have with others. You should realize that I am taking the opportunity to respond to you for the benefit of my reading audience and it allows me to voice my opinions, not because I feel obliged to you.
Let me start out by saying that I have not taken the time to carefully study your copyright complaints or claims. You may or may not have legitimate complaints. What I ABSOLUTELY DO KNOW is that your conduct is appalling, disgraceful, unprofessional, and is borderline harassment. I also find your communications to be extortionistic and bullying in nature.
It is for that very reason that I have chosen to report on the events surrounding you and Imageline Inc. Quite simply, I could not believe the emails that were submitted to me were from any so-called knowledgeable professional.
I have no problems in your protecting your copyrights but there is a right way and there is a wrong way. And because your communications has been so outrageous and over-the-top, it greatly overshadows any legitimate issues and complaints you might have.
You have made false accusations that what Oscar and I do on this website is a business and “venture capital source”. Believe it or not, I get no financial compensation whatsoever except from the few donations that come in where some people want to express their gratitude over the valuable information and support they receive here.
Oscar freely and generously donates his time to reply to queries in our discussion forums, write articles for the website, and do telephone interviews. It is only when readers decide that they need personalized attention and service that Oscar even begins to bill anyone. Even then, Oscar charges a minimal hourly rate for such a service. I assure you that far more people receive “free service” than are charged. And those that do pay do so willingly and happily with no hard selling on our end.
Last year, I launched this website as a counterattack to what I felt was unreasonable demands and bullying tactics by Getty Images. I wanted to resolve things peacefully but despite my best attempts, they continued to threaten me legally. When that occurred, I knew that the only way I could protect my interests was to fight back aggressively and publicly.
To set the record straight, I first heard about you and your tactics nearly a month ago. However, I did not feel it was necessary to provide any news coverage as I thought your impact was fairly small and reasonably harmless. It also did not directly relate to the subject of our website. However, when I saw and read the actual emails you wrote to letter recipients, I was outraged and appalled. You took the whole idea of an extortion letter to a whole new level. As I have said, even Getty Images, MasterFile, and Jupiter Images combined did not match your venomous emails.
Regarding my posting links to blogs that complain about you, I chose only the ones that seemed most substantial. There could have been many more links posted but I did not feel they were substantial enough to link to. Oscar has nothing to do with any content he does not write. Ultimately, I am the Editor in Chief of the website so I accept responsibility for the decision to post those links.
I believe people inherently prefer to avoid conflict. And so, when there are entire blogs dedicated to fighting and complaining about you, I believe there must be some substance to it since it appears you have angered and upset so many people.
I have no wish to dedicate any more time to covering your case than is necessary. It is not good use of my time. My time is better spent elsewhere on other projects. I personally have no axe to grind with you because I have never met you. However, I cannot in good conscience allow others to be subject to your bullying and extortionistic behavior when I can do something about it. You appear to be relentless in spewing your venom on others that your letter recipients felt like they needed to reach out to us for help.
This has come full circle. The very emails you have sent others have now come back to you for all to read. The interesting thing is I need not say much about them. The emails clearly speak for themselves and they do not paint you in a very credible or positive light.If I had a request, I would ask you to conduct yourself more professionally and appropriately if you truly care about your issues and want to be treated more seriously. You have not engendered much goodwill and your credibility is low. For you to become righteous and claim that you are trying to stop digital piracy rings hollow for me.
If you wish to continue the dialog, you may do so on our discussion forum. Any future communications you send to me, I intend to publish on the website for the sake of transparency.
Sincerely,
Matthew Chan
Publisher & Editor of ExtortionLetterInfo.com
================================
Here was Mr. Riddick's original email to us that was
made public on this post.
------------------------------------
Dear Mathew (sic),
When I first read about your “case”, I had some empathy for the position you found yourself in. We have suffered enormous losses over the years at the hands of design and graphics companies in India, China, Russia, and Brazil, where there are virtually no copyright laws to speak of (and certainly no enforcement of the laws that do exist).
The more I read, the less empathetic I became, however. Here’s why:
1. On your web site, you clearly state that it is your objective to present the facts from both sides, do your homework thoroughly, and provide some relief to end-user “victims” who end up with copyrighted material on their web sites due to the poor business practices and ethics of others, much as is with your case with the folks from India. That’s exactly what we do, Mathew (sic). Yet you posted the rants and raves of two or three disgruntled embroidery industry participants without making any effort at all to hear the other side of this “story”, or to verify what they have told you.
2. It appears to us that both you and Mr. Michelen see these “victims” as becoming another venture capital source of your new online venture. That is simply not right, Matthew. At times, “right” and “wrong” should come before the cold interpretation and/or enforcement of our law.
3. You made no mention, whatsoever, that Imageline has never gone after end-user infringers, like the music industry has done for years, or as you claim Getty Images, Jupiter, and Corbis are now doing. We only go after the “middlemen” (much like the company you dealt with in India) who are sub-licensing and re-distributing our copyright-protected property for their own commercial gain on their web sites and in their CD/DVD products, and distributing the pirated images and designs to others.
4. You also never mention that Imageline agrees to release all of the end user infringers (such as your company would be) when we settle with these “middlemen”. In other words, if your new buddy “Pat” were to distribute unlicensed versions of one of our digital designs to 2,000 embroidery people over his web site, the per infringement settlement fees would be less than $3.75 per end user who is infringing under our laws. That’s a lot less than even the $200.00 minimum Mr. Michelen posts on your blog.
5. Who wouldn’t become angry and agitated if people caught with their hands in the cookie (and very thoroughly researched and documented by Imageline) don’t remove the infringing images after notice, or even have the courtesy to respond to an official cease and desist letter/e-mail communications we send each of them?
6. In fact, we follow the exact same C & D and take-down procedures Mr. Michelen claims he recommends for his clients.
7. This looks like nothing more than sensational investigative journalism to me. I would have been more than happy to share the whole truth with you if you had only bothered to ask.
8. Imageline has been considered the “David” in the copyright battle with a number of “Goliaths” for over fifteen (15+) years. Over ninety- five percent (>95%) of the companies we go after for infringing our hard earned copyrighted works are substantially larger than we are. You would be surprised at how incorrect you and Mr. Michelen have been here, and have interpreted a few ‘out of context’ communications to support your own pre-conceived notions and business plans … not the truth.
9. Finally, posting links to blogs hosted by people who hide behind the anonymous nature of the Internet to conduct smear campaigns is not what anyone should expect from a web site moderated by a professional attorney, and stating that it is your objective to deliver “all of the facts” and the truth. We are very confused here. Does Mr. Michelen’s law firm know what he is doing in these ventures? Lawyers here in Virginia are not allowed to practice law in this manner. I am particularly concerned that he advises everyone to destroy evidence on your web site.. Please have him contact me directly if he has any interest at all in representing the information regarding Imageline in a factual manner to your audience.
Again, please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about what we are trying to do to lower the “digital piracy” rate here in this country, and to begin to accomplish the same goals overseas.
ALL legitimate book, software, audio/visual, and graphic arts content publishers and copyright advocates should support the reduction of Internet-based piracy or they will all soon be extinct. At least that is my humble opinion.
I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Sincerely,
George Riddick
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.
Show Posts
