69
« on: January 11, 2012, 09:12:06 PM »
Thanks all, I appreciate your kind remarks! I rushed the story because I wanted to post but was on my way out the door...Honestly, it was the jail time threat that really got to me the most. I had reason to believe its validity when I contacted our region's most sought after & successful patent attorney, who happened to be a friend of my family...When I sent him a copy of the demand letter I received from BS, even he said that given the fact that the image was not mine to use, not even the best lawyer in the world could get me off...
I started this thread because over the period of weeks while this was happening, I felt in my gut that this was a trap for the unknowing website builder like myself. I recall receiving the "shakedown Letter" one day & after reading it, I thought how could this be happening...Seriously? $10,000 dollars for one photo that I presumed was free to use...My husband thought it was spam & told me to ignore it...
But of course I couldn't stop thinking about it so I googled the lawyers name & saw that he existed.
Naturally, I wanted to end the stress so I called him & tried to rationalise that it was an accident & that no infringement had been intended. He was very quick to explain the laws of copyright infringement to me & no matter what I said, at the end of the day, the only thing he wanted me to say was that I would pay. I remember crying on the phone & pleading which got me nowhere...if anything it gave him the confidence to further intimidate & scare me.
The next thing I did was call VKT gallery & ended up on the phone with his wife. I was again in tears fearful of the prison threat...I have never broken the law except for maybe speeding, so the thought of jail was suffocating me inside & out. She told me I wouldn't go to jail, but that it would cost me something & then informed me to contact HAN & ask to speak to the Art Curator. I did, & gave him the same speech, pleading once again. He told me to call BS to deal with him directly...but I had already tried 4 or 5 times over the phone & several times through email only to be reminded that criminal prosecution was hanging over my head. As I mentioned in the earlier post, I was terrified, had nightmares & would find myself in tears even in the garden trying to find peace of mind planting flowers...what have you etc.
At one point I asked BS, where is the humanity in all of this? Here I am, I'm a good person & would never intentionally break any law, would never steal from another, I've made a stupid uneducated mistake of using this photograph for @ 2 weeks & now I am to come up with $10,000 dollars? I don't have that kind of cash on hand! His only response was "The humanity in this is to pay!" Well that is when I started getting angry and chose to fight back. I found ELI & Oscar & just like that my torment was over.
I have to say, at first when I saw their names appear on this awesome forum & how much they didn't like the negative exposure, I was rewarded by a slightly sweet revenge. Felt that they deserved it for what I was put through...but after time passed, I started to feel sorry for him.
I paid him out...I think it was $300...but was it really worth it for him to go after little me for $300 dollars? After all the dedication, time & money$$$ it cost him to get his degree only to have his reputation darkened. I went to Med school for 2 years before leaving it behind to begin an entrepreneur dream with my family. I know how much work & dedication is involved with getting a degree.
But even after the feeling sorry...all I have to do is remember how he spoke to me while I cried telling him how much I love my son & how he needs me & how I can't go to prison. On every call, he clearly did not care but always told me to pay or make a reasonable offer...
I sent him as much proof as I could to prove I couldn't pay them what they were after. He followed with that he would go after my husband who is also on the my website even though he is not administrator or owner as I am, but still liable. Enough time went by without a reply from me while I searched for answers & loopholes that he must have realised I wasn't lying. He finally emailed me & said "even a few hundred dollars is an offer". But by then, he had gone too far & I had already spoken with Oscar & Matthew over the phone. I made a decision to expose what had happened by associating myself with ELI. I wanted the truth & facts to come out, wanted others to have some defence against this sort of attack...I did it because it was the right thing to do.
I do believe many actions deserve a second chance, for a person to feel remorseful & be forgiven. I believe that BS regrets his dealings with me, primarily because of the light it has shed on him but not necessarily for what happened to me. If anything, judging by his personality during the time I dealt with him, if anything he is just as angry & soar over it all. I am sorry that it got this far & that it tarnished his reputation but had he been just a little more humane with me, none of this would have happened.
My website relies on good photos & since this has all happened, I deleted every photo I had thought free to use...5 years of work gone. I was blessed by several key individuals who volunteered me with unlimited use of thousands of photographs & I was able to re-build my website, even better than it was.
So there it is, the whole story & yes I am much better now, better educated too.
Show Posts
they actually threatened you with this??
