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« on: December 19, 2011, 03:34:22 PM »
Newbie here. A website customer of mine received the standard letter from Mr. Aldrich dated Dec. 2 regarding an alleged HAN image. I sent a response to him on Fri Dec 16 basically stating that I'm the responsible owner of the website and for him to contact me and not my customer. I explained the image used was from a site that allowed for free download and represented the image as licensed under Creative Commons.
Mr. Aldrich did respond by email last night (Sun Dec 18) basically restating their position regarding settlement:
"Please note that mere removal does not absolve you of liability under U.S. Copyright Law, and that my client will enforce their rights to the maximum extent possible."
He also ended the email with the following:
"Also, please note that "not knowing" the photos were copyrighted is not a valid defense, nor does it qualify you as an "innocent infringer" under the U.S. Copyright Act. In a recent 5th Circuit Case the court held that a teenage girl downloading music was not an innocent infringer under the meaning of the act; therefore, it's highly unlikely that they would find you - a web developer who ostensibly should know better - were innocent under the Copyright Act.
For these reasons, I hope you will choose your course of action carefully. My client is reasonable and may be willing to lower the settlement price if you are willing to make a reasonable offer.
We very much hope to resolve this amicably."
I am willing to share all communications with the ELI community, but I am not sure how to go about it properly.