I don't see much hope for those who folded getting any money back no matter what happens to HAN/VKT. I find that very irritating, but they should have never signed on the dotted line.
HAN and VKT may be facing some serious blowback if a judge calls them on their trap, especially if it can be proven that they intentionally planted bait or even if they just passively allowed the bait to disseminate so they could take advantage. If that happens, the money they got from those who rolled over will probably become a defense fund for the trolls.
Many people here have said it: They'd rather pay the money defending themselves than cave in to dishonest threats from yuppies in starchy suits. I personally believe fighting back is virtually a moral duty. If no one fights back, they will divide and conquer every one of their victims.
Any reasonable judge should be able to see, based on the information that's already publicized on this forum and elsewhere, that while each single case can be built to have the appearance of legal propriety, when you look at the circumstances of likely entrapment and the shameless execution of a business model based on legal bullying and fear tactics, each individual case loses merit.
If there is something we can do to help the current defendants against HAN/JKV, we should do it. This could be pivotal in creating case law that effectively eliminates this model. If this precedent is set with the stock image trolls, it may also help with other intellectual property trolls surfacing from every storm drain in America. This extortion model is being applied to music, videos, text, anything than can be branded.
Lettered gave Matthew a suggestion some time ago about filing an amicus ("friend of the court") brief on behalf of the defendants in the HAN cases explaining our findings about the HAN/VKT baitpaper cartel, and turning over all of the information we have on each and everyone of the images he's tainted the information society with. Or at least the ones we're aware of, who knows how many there really are.
Mr. Tylor, by the way, is no longer a Jehovah's Witness. He left the group because of philosophical issues with the prohibition on receiving blood transfusions and receiving organ transplants, among other issues which he describes at length in a post on a forum for folks who have left that group. I want to point this out in fairness to the Watchtower Society. The Jehovah Witnesses I am acquainted with are very nice, sincere and honest people.
But enough about VKT. Let us not forget the other player in the cartel, Hawaiian Art Network LLC. In an earlier post, Matthew found that the place is run by a person by the name of Glen Carner:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/hawaiian-art-network-settlement-demand-letter-collection/15/In the same post, Buddhapi strikes gold by finding a page created on Brothersoft.com (be careful with that site, their stuff is polluted with viruses!) where apparently Mr. Glen Carner actually had the audacity to hang some baitpaper under his own name (!!!!), which you can still go and nibble on if you would like to bait the baiters:
http://publisher.brothersoft.com/glen-carner.htmlI think Mr. Carner would have some explaining to do to a judge about this. If I were him, I'd be asking who you have to give foot massages to at Brothersoft to take that page down right after reading this post (you do read this, don't you?).
You know what, though? A lot of us have gone to the Brothersoft page and saved web archives of this nifty little free gift. Besides, it's probably all over Wayback Machine, one of their favorite tools of the trade.
Here's the post from Lettered regarding the amicus brief:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/breaking-new-ground-with-amicus-briefs/Once you get the big picture, you can see this is not just about intellectual property rights. It's also about intellectual property wrongs.
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