Messages

31

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: December 08, 2017, 09:00:22 AM »

I disagree with some of Hamilton's points. For example, I've never heard of standing being applied for ethics complaints. The issue for ethics discipline is the attorney's conduct alone, it doesn't matter if it had no measurable impact on anyone. Think of advertising violations for example.

In a normal world he has some points, but I don't think they apply in the bizarro world that everyone dealing with Higbee has stepped into. He is running a script, he does not respond to substantive issues. The person you are trying to discuss the issue with is an $18/hour bill collector, not an attorney.

He does file suits against people that are judgment proof, that filing fee is equal to $400 of free advertising to him to get bigger settlements from the next guy.

Most complaints do go nowhere, but using that as a reason to not make them is how the status quo endures. Only after enough people have had enough and the state bars start looking at this guy is he going to reform his operation. He can continue to troll all he wants within the rules, but he is currently crossing several lines with the deception, dishonesty, and misrepresentations he uses in communicating with defendants. He may think all the states he is licensed in are like California and do not have those rules, but he would be wrong.

Higbee doesn't follow the rules of reasonableness, so neither should anyone that has to deal with him.

32

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: December 03, 2017, 10:47:32 AM »

I've had limited experience with Higbee's operation but from what I've seen, it is all automated in the early stages. The best analogy is he is hiring bill collector types to keep making phone calls and reply to e-mails. Anything that requires thought outside of a script is probably going to be ignored. From what I have seen in some of his court filings I'm not sure they deviate from scripts even after filing cases. I have not seen Higbee or any of his staff make any accurate substantive rebuttals to issues others have raised so I would not expect much. Each case has a dollar value to them, the only way to get them to back off voluntarily is by finding that dollar value (which could be 10% of their initial ask in some cases).

33

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Higbee & International Plaintiffs

« on: November 25, 2017, 12:54:48 PM »

I saw a recent case filing from Higbee with a case based on a plaintiff in Australia. For anyone else dealing with the Nick Youngson claims or other international plaintiff's this will be interesting to follow if the defendant doesn't roll over and calls the bluff of the plaintiff coming to court for discovery and trial. Here is the filing: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z_obcjaABP7B2mRTXUn3BlYb2OwWLFoa

One unique fact is it refers to a 2015 claim against this defendant that was settled so it may have influenced the decision to file.

34

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: November 22, 2017, 09:29:40 AM »

by the by, I was discussing with an attorney friend the whole method Higbee has been using to request the business insurance information like the way seen in this thread and 1) he agreed it is a big ethics complaint vulnerability 2) Higbee's main goal may be targeting businesses and getting the quick insurance payouts like personal injury lawyers do. Insurance payouts are lower hanging fruit for this guy than the usual defendants he goes after.

35

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee & Assoc. Lists RM Media Ltd in Nick Youngson Template Lawsuit

« on: November 22, 2017, 09:22:07 AM »

lol, his wife is administratively ineligible now? When did that happen? I'm guessing she didn't pay her dues or meet some other annual requirement to keep practicing. They run a tight ship over there.

36

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: November 22, 2017, 09:20:45 AM »

Private message me through ELI if you would like any help with the bar complaints. Most of the states have a form which I linked on the post I made. They don't need an exhaustive narrative, just the key issues. If you cite the ethics rules for the state you are complaining in and add in the keywords conflict of interest and 'misrepresentation, deceptive' etc. you are probably giving the investigator a lot more of a starting point than 90% of other complaints they get. They usually take the ball and run with it, they just need the starting point from the complaint to know what they should be looking at.

37

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee & Assoc. Lists RM Media Ltd in Nick Youngson Template Lawsuit

« on: November 21, 2017, 09:46:35 AM »

If you want to file the ethics complaint, you should do so without making a quid pro quo with his claims against you. If you make it obvious, that gives him an easy and believable defense to the ethics complaints: "they only filed this to get leverage on me." The ethics complaint won't automatically end his case against you, but it may make him reconsider how much he wants to push you if he starts to feel some pain.

Here is the compiled info on Bar complaint procedures for states Higbee was licensed in, not sure if NJ was on the list at the time. http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/if-you-want-to-file-a-complaint-against-higbee/

38

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: November 21, 2017, 09:42:15 AM »

If you want the info on filing Bar complaints in any of the states Higbee is licensed in, I compiled the info in this thread http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/if-you-want-to-file-a-complaint-against-higbee/

I especially think he is vulnerable with how they frame the request for copies of business insurance policies. The non-existence of such a policy would not wash away any ethics violation it represents.

39

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee followup

« on: November 16, 2017, 09:16:21 AM »

The e-mails sound like an autoresponder system he must have setup recently, I haven't heard of those before. A quick Pacer search did show some cases with a Michael Grecco as plaintiff in NY and MA are the only places I believe and those were cases with a different firm than Higbee. I'd look at the case details and maybe take it a little more seriously than some pure troll cases depending on the details.

40

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee & Assoc. Lists RM Media Ltd in Nick Youngson Template Lawsuit

« on: November 14, 2017, 08:54:03 PM »

I think this job posting says a lot about how Higbee envisions his operation to work. He is hiring a LITIGATION attorney and trial experience is nowhere in the requirements. It is strictly filing complaints, get through discovery and motions, and then settle. The fringe, multiple infringement cases that go to trial are the outliers for him.

https://higbeeassociates.recruiterbox.com/jobs/fk0fqcj/

Has anyone seen an RM / Youngson filing yet? I haven’t checked pacer in a few weeks. I think a lot of the 15 day deadlines he has given people have lapsed over the last 12 months since he started.

41

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Email from PicRights.com

« on: November 02, 2017, 08:44:47 AM »

As others have alluded to, the advice you receive is only as good as the person giving it. I've discussed some of these issues with non-IP lawyers or just lazy lawyers and they see the copyright registration and other things and immediately think 'they got us' without ever considering the multiple vulnerabilities a lot of these troll cases have. I've learned more spending an afternoon on Pacer than I would probably get from a generalist attorney who is usually looking for the "easiest" way out.

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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Useful Info For Anyone Defending Sadowski & Higbee

« on: October 23, 2017, 04:42:11 PM »

If anyone is defending against a Higbee Sadowski case the Backchina case currently pending in Texas may be useful to follow. Defendant recently filed their motion for summary judgment for fair use and Sadowski provided his evidence of sales, of course most of them are well below Higbee's extortion demands and he doesn't have much proof of payment. Any wagers on Higbee's next move? I'm thinking he has to be close to folding on this case since the sales evidence came up so weak. Another swing and a miss.

Sadowski Sales Statement
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ZBMFkSS0ADU1U0QmNqQUdDVFk

Sadowski Invoice
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ZBMFkSS0ADVUtLODd6Rm1qTEk

Defendant's Memo for summary judgment
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ZBMFkSS0ADT1BqYm1FaUNSNW8

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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Is Higbee Stuck at the Bottom?

« on: October 18, 2017, 11:26:30 AM »

I don’t know, I’m still researching his MO. For the run of the mill troll cases outside of California he seems to go hard until he loses his Motion for Summary Judgment. I suspect that is because he can handle the case remotely through the summary judgment stage so he is trying to get the easy win from people who don’t contest the case.

The Backchina case is one of the few where I know he had to bring in local appearance attorneys not already part of his firm so it will be interesting to see how that case ends since Sadowski may be more litigious than Higbee wants to be.

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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: October 15, 2017, 05:20:14 PM »

It will be interesting if Higbee really does drop it or if you hear from him down the road. It would kind of set the floor for what it takes to get rid of a Youngson case.

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Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Beware of Photographer Nicholas (Nick) Youngson of NYPhotographic.com

« on: October 15, 2017, 03:33:35 PM »

Just curious, how is Youngson breaching the license agreement you have with him?

I actually paid the $10, I feel that if someone is complaining that you violated their copyright, but agree to sell you a license for $10, then they can't claim you owe them $5,000 in damages.

To show the nonsense of Higbee, I did answer the call from one of their "staff". I told them that I bought a license. They checked with Youngson and said that I bought the license for them after their initial claim. They still wanted to negotiate a settlement.

I asked the staff member if they were an attorney and of course, they denied that they were and claimed they never said they were one. I said that I knew by the way they communicated and their understanding of the law, they clearly weren't an attorney.

I told them that when it came to a settlement, I demanded money from Youngson for breach of my licensing agreement. Needless to say, I haven't heard back.

My comments inline...

I received one of these Higbee demand letters in February 2017 through a website I run. At first, I was a little nervous and then I Googled and came out to this site. I'm a lawyer and I knew things were fishy before even coming to this great resource.

Welcome, glad to have you here!

1. I found it odd that they sent a demand through regular mail. Usually, in important legal papers, I at least use tracking.

In the "old" days (pre-2012), almost everything we saw was through regular mail but then gradually we began seeing copyright claim emails which has almost become the norm today. I estimate there are literally thousands of copyright claims each year.  It is all based on most people's legal ignorance. The emails are generally as effective as sending a snail-mail letter.

2. The $5,000 demand bears in no relationship to any damages that Youngson could have for a page that maybe had 200 views on it. I deleted the photo after I got the initial paperwork.

Absolutely correct  The $5K number is made up and arbitrary. We see that number for most people.

3. The whole honeypot scam of labeling the photos for reuse in Google Images when it should be labeled as commercial or reuse with modification since you have to attribute or pay the license.

The Nick Youngson website operation is so shoddy and the wording and disclosures are so bad, I didn't even know it was his website until another victim reported his findings and it compelled me to give a closer look. He promotes his "free images" so hard that people are falling for it left and right and put into a "gotcha" situation.

4. The whole license fee of $10. How can he demand $5,000 in damages when he'll sell the picture for $10?

That is correct. It is far above even the $750 minimum statutory damages assuming he even registers his images.

5. The whole licensing thing is a scam because if you pay the $10, Youngson provides no licensing agreement. When does it start, when does it end? Will he still claim damages from someone who bought a license from him.

I have not heard from anyone paying the $10. Did you pay $10? Is that what you are saying?

6. The people calling you on the phones aren't lawyers. Anyone who ever went to law school would understand their demands aren't reasonable.

Yup, the people on the phones are generally low-level hourly clerks. They do the grunt work.

7. Higbee hasn't sued on this because it would expose the Honeypot scam. There is more money in getting $500 to $1250 settlements from companies who don't know better or don't want to hire an attorney than filing an actual lawsuit.

That is what I have been saying. I rarely call anything a "honeypot" scheme because most victims got their images from Google Images and any number of places.  But with Nick Youngson, he promotes "free" images with crappy disclosures, then nails people for making dumb mistakes on giving credit.

I ignored the calls and I've ignored the threats that they are forwarding this to their litigation team. It's 6 months later. If they wanted to sue me, they would have already.

I agree with you that people should not return calls. In fact, people should save the voice messages. I am interested in hearing more of them. I disagree with you on the rationale of their not filing a lawsuit within 6 months. Many copyright lawsuits are filed between Years 2 & 3 when it becomes clear that months-long efforts to settle have been exhausted. IN particular, Nick Youngson filing a lawsuit is currently unlikely because of the way he operated.  His active promotion of "free" images and lack of clear disclosures is a big problem in my view.