Click Official ELI Links
Get Help With Your Extortion Letter | ELI Phone Support | ELI Legal Representation Program
Show your support of the ELI website & ELI Forums through a PayPal Contribution. Thank you for supporting the ongoing fight and reporting of Extortion Settlement Demand Letters.

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - UnfairlyTargeted

Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5
46
Absolutely go after the photographer.  Photographers usually don't have the same stomach for getting dragged thru the dirt as lawyers.  And they're the ones who are keeping Higbee in business.  Especially when you find out half of these photographers aren't even professionals.  They're people who go around copying each other's ideas, couldn't make a real dime from their so called artwork to save their life, and brag in the amateur hour photography forums about how they extorted a new lens out of someone for their hobby.  I'm proposing a different strategy here than what's been presented in the past, and I believe from my own experience it can be highly successful.  Do some research and you'll agree.

47
Who was the photographer in question?  It'll be easier to go after him.

48
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack extortion letter
« on: April 02, 2018, 04:52:09 PM »
There's one guy in that forum link above bragging about how he bought a new lens for his HOBBY.  It's a f'ing hobby to extort people?!

THIS is exactly what I was talking about.  These people would never have sold their images.  They're just cashing in on an extorted windfall.

49
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack extortion letter
« on: April 02, 2018, 04:12:21 PM »
Services like Pixsy/Copytrack and photographers who use them make my blood boil.  A service for talentless hacks to extract value from otherwise worthless images circulating the sewers of the photo sharing "look at me" sites.  Half these so-called-photographers would chomp at the bit to get a few more likes for their crappy photos by paying money to promote them, but yet they somehow get pissed off when the images are actually used.  Look it up.  Do some research in the forums where they hang out.  I did!

Then name and shame them.

50
Is it not enough to just show the damn image is on 1000 free wallpaper sites and whatnot?  That it doesn't have any copyright info on it?  I can't imagine a court would award anything but the minimum if you show them that.

Again I argue photographers lately are seeding the internet and then calling up places like Pixsy.  It's just the in thing to do.  And the right thing to combat it is to call the photographer out and make their lives so miserable for contacting you (pointing out that you're onto this seeding trend) that they never dream of contacting anyone again over their mediocre basically worthless image that they think is so damn valuable.  Worked for me.

51
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Another Peter Holt Shakedown
« on: March 28, 2018, 11:57:08 AM »
If he registered the image 7 months after you used it, you can tell him to piss off.  He has no case.

And regardless of whether he seeded the internet or not (and personally I think based on my research many photographers are doing this because they can't make it legitimately selling images anymore) his image is all over the place.  Thus he has absolutely no basis to make any claims over it - an innocent infringement defense is a slam dunk and a baiting defense is a good backup.  That horse has left the barn and he needs to move on.

52
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack chasing me
« on: March 22, 2018, 06:25:25 PM »
FWIW i found the most effective way to deal with trolls is to go after the photographer himself.  Make his life a living hell and he tells his attorney to back off. The attorney is only the photographer's hired gun, and the photographer has way more to lose by getting bad press and other sorts of things ;)

53
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack chasing me
« on: March 22, 2018, 12:39:51 PM »
The image in question could also have been seeded onto sites to encourage infringement.  I've successfully gotten a photographer to back off by accusing him and his attorney of purposefully spreading the image in question around the internet to cash in on it.  The photographer was a struggling rather unsuccessful one so it was plausible this was his only method to make money on his subpar images.

Never take a claim by one of these people seriously.  They're all just looking to make a quick buck off people like jren.

54
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack chasing me
« on: March 19, 2018, 06:02:07 PM »
I wouldn't steal something from a store.  But we're not talking about stealing here.  We're talking about a civil law dispute.  And people asking hundreds of dollars for things that people would either never buy or pay only a few dollars for hardly justifies as ethical.

Regardless, nobody will sue over $100 so why even waste your brain cycles thinking about this.  Just move on with your life.

55
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copytrack chasing me
« on: March 12, 2018, 01:48:09 PM »
Horrible strategy.  Whether you "stole" the work or not, they have to PROVE you stole the work.  Absolutely impossible to do.  Admitting you stole something will get your name shared with every troll in the universe and get you more and more letters.  Ignore ignore ignore.  Even if you feel guilty.  Which you never should for a picture on the internet.  For a $100 claim they will never be able to touch you.

56
With all due respect, I disagree with your assessment of Ripoff Report.  I think it's an excellent tactic for dealing with trolls, especially small-time ones.  They have to PROVE who posted the reports, and likely they've trolled many different victims.  Trolls don't play by rules.  Thus, I see no reason why I should either.  In case it wasn't clear, I am firmly in the never pay category.  Anyone sending me a letter can pound sand.

57
Has anyone created a Ripoff Report for this guy?  I'd recommend anyone contacted by an individual photographer troll create one.  It hurts them right on their bottom line.  It's amazing how quickly they back off when their business is ruined by some horrible reviews of their photography business right at the top of their Google results.

58
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Publicly Shaming Trolls?
« on: September 05, 2015, 01:53:21 AM »
No, he's not protecting his work.  Heck, it's not even his work.  He took a photo of a tree that 1000 other people took before him.  How does that make it his work?  There's a million pictures of it on the internet.  Most of them are freely downloadable from hundreds of sites.  None of his work is original.  It's all ripped off.  It's unfortunate if the law allows him to claim essentially copied work as his own.  He is operating because the laws are too f*cked up to put an end to his schemes.  He's certainly not operating to the spirit of the law and it's probably not the only unethical thing he's doing.  I won't go into it, but know that I have triggered investigations into him by several authorities for various illegal items.

Let's take apart his manifesto for a moment:

He goes into great detail on how to write a threatening letter to scare his victims into forking over hush money:
"It is amazing how the threat of a $150,000 lawsuit over a registered copyright brings compliance."
Wow, how is that not extortion?!  He talks of how to chalk the value of his work far beyond what it is worth.  His work is not top-shelf high-value exclusive stock yet he prices his work that way when it is common microstock.

He mentions how profitable the extortion scheme he documents can be.

He talks about choosing an amount that will "guarantee a settlement" and how he should have chosen a higher number.  It's clear he's NEVER going to court and NEVER intended to.  The way I see it, you are INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law.  Not you are innocent until Tom Schwabel says you are guilty and holds your website ransom.  Don't pay this scammer a single red cent!!!!  Report him on this forum and any others you can find.

Even if there was a crime committed, and I argue not since this work is NOT original, Schwabel's proposed penalty does not match the crime.  At most, anyone would owe him a couple of dollars.  His photos are unoriginal, clichéd, and common stuff.  No models, no high priced shoots, nothing.  Nothing that demands a $2000 price tag, or even $200.

I pity any poor slob who choses to work with this guy.  He'll probably eventually turn on them and extort them too.


59
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Publicly Shaming Trolls?
« on: September 04, 2015, 08:36:28 PM »
I think it would be useful to have a look at his manifesto before you judge me as an idiot and him as a saint:
http://rebeccalatsonphotography.me/2011/12/26/copyrighting-your-photography-its-so-important/

I don't care if I look like an idiot, the point is to expose him and destroy his ability to extort others.

60
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Publicly Shaming Trolls?
« on: September 04, 2015, 07:05:52 PM »
I think now is a great time to re-shame the once very vocal troll Tom Schwabel.  A small timer trying to act like big bad Getty.  After my shaming of him last year he disappeared for a bit, not appearing in any forums to spew his garbage on how to sue, i mean steal from, people and not posting any more photos (mostly knocked off or possibly stolen photos) on his website, but he's back at it again.

I love this site, all of his potential "customers" and extortion targets find this site as his #2 hit.  I suspect that's why he went underground for a while.  He couldn't get anyone to respond to his stolen picture scams.

Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5
Official ELI Help Options
Get Help With Your Extortion Letter | ELI Phone Support Call | ELI Defense Letter Program
Show your support of the ELI website & ELI Forums through a PayPal Contribution. Thank you for supporting the ongoing fight and reporting of Extortion Settlement Demand Letters.