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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee continues to make demands!

« on: May 22, 2018, 09:03:31 PM »

Thanks for your insight, icepick. This is definitely frustrating.

Ethan Seven -

It sounds like you made an offer to settle.   If it was verbal, resend it via email so that you have documentation that you made a good faith effort to resolve the matter.   It will annoy the judge if you made an offer and they did not respond or counter prior to commencing litigation.     

We never got to the point of offering to settle. I was asking questions of ImageProtect and then one day got a response that the matter was turned over to an attorney. Wasn't going to offer anything until they proved they had the right to settle.

Every communication lists the photographer but the settlement demand was on behalf of StockFoods. I was asking for proof of exclusive agency and proof of copyright. The first time they wrote back that they don't have to provide any information until it goes to court. So there was a second request for the information. They provided a copyright registration certificate dated June 2013. The post went up in October 2012.

Once we knew there was no valid registration at the time of posting we were discussing a settlement offer but then got the email they turned the case over.

So, I guess it's a matter of actually talking to someone at Higbee and making a reasonable offer or waiting it out.

Thanks for your insight!

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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Higbee continues to make demands!

« on: May 21, 2018, 04:34:41 PM »

Here we are 5 months later and Higbee sent his 15-day letter along with a mock complaint. Sent it regular mail.

This is a continuation from my original thread which was posted in the Getty Forum before there was a Higbee forum - https://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/imageprotect-demands-$1500-for-photo-of-deviled-eggs-from-stockfood/

Plaintiff is listed as Stockfood America. Unless Stockfood America obtained copyright of the image I don't see how they can be the plaintiff since they didn't take the photo.

I've searched and the photo has been published online as early as 2009. Recall that I used the photo because I saw it on a food blog (w/o any attribution to anyone) and asked that blogger there if I could use it. They said yes.

Timeline:

• Published post with photo in October 2012
• Stockfood claims to have obtained registered copyright for "Group Registration for automated database" in June 2013
• Search of copyright.gov does not show registration in name of photographer
• Rec'd demand from Image Protect in Dec. 2017, LLC owner (not me) replied which is why I'm sure we're dealing with this now
• Took down photo immediately upon receipt of demand letter
• Website has private registration but they found LLC owner's personal address (thanks, Google!)
• Website is owned by an LLC
• Complaint names individual personally with d/b/a website name

After reading through the entire Higbee forum here the past few months, I still believe Higbee/Stockfood has no leg to stand on and their initial demand of $AB00 and the "you can settle and avoid litigation" $C000 are both outrageous. When the owner of the LLC contacted ImageProtect she offered to settle for $XXX but ImageProtect never replied.

I know that there are a few on here that also got the 15-day letter but haven't heard anything and it's more than 15 days. However, this is nerve-wracking!

I don't believe Stockfood America has standing. If they do, it seems like this is somewhat of a Righthaven situation - assignment of copyright just to sue - except that Stockfood America is actual a real stock photo company. But even if Stockfood America does own the copyright, they still don't have a registration and requests for the registration only returned the "Group Registration for automated database". Is that even a registration of the underlying photos?

Any suggestions? Is ignoring this still the way to go?