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61

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee and Mark A. Johnson Photographer - willful entrapment

« Last post by Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi) on January 25, 2019, 08:19:38 PM »

my other question is, is it worth it for me to reach out to this photographer directly to ask him to ask his lawyers to drop this action?

I understand him wanting to be compensated for wrongful infringement, but i cannot image such an artist willing to inflict pain and hardship in this particular case. i am not "sue-worthy."

He wants to be paid, do you really think he cares about your "pain"??... If you are not "sue-worthy" why even worry about it...worst case they sue you and win and collect nothing...

62

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee and Mark A. Johnson Photographer - willful entrapment

« Last post by Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi) on January 25, 2019, 08:16:29 PM »

Is this willful entrapment?

First of all, as an artist i would never willfully use copyrighted images - i always get them from creative commons or free image sites.

"Free image sites"...nothing is free, most of these "Free" sites are full of scraped images..

BUT, last month I got an extortion letter from Higbee. It was on a non-professional website i put together to try to pitch a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood style children's tv show. I grabbed a picture of the ocean from some random free site.
http://www.midmodsquad.com/projects/the-green-room/what-is-a-green-room/

professional, non-professional has no bearing on anything... and " I grabbed a picture of the ocean from some random free site." is where you went wrong, did you read the "terms of service"...likely not, and they likely have some sort of disclaimer putting the onus on you if there are any issues..

I responded to them with a letter that i removed the photo that looked "similar" to the one that they said was infringement.
I also explained that I had no assets for them to go after should they decide to pursue a lawsuit.

they now know that they have a "live one"
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, today they called me and harassed me on the phone. (I probably said too much to them.) I never admitted guilt. But I kept telling them I had nothing for them to sue and they kept asking me for proof of hardship... bank statements and tax returns.

screw them, you can show this when a judge tells you to.

When I asked them if they had forwarded my correspondence to their client, they said no.
When I ask them if they would forward it to their client they again said not until I send them a proof of hardship.

Then they hung up on me!

So I look up this artist they are representing.
Mark A. Johnson
https://www.markjohnson.com/index

There are all of his images without any copyright notice on the page. None of the images have watermarks or any other notice.

and none is required..

But when you click on the left bar "EXTRAS" there is a little menu option "A word on Copyright"
Then you click again on that and the following comes up:
All of my photography is registered with the United States Copyright Office, which also protects my work internationally. None of my photography is available for free, fair use, Creative Commons, or any other perceived free use. If you like my work, please buy a print or license it from me. It's easy and inexpensive. Thank you!
If you have any questions about use of my work, please contact me.
Aloha,
Mark
i bet his images are circulating in a few places and Higbee is having a field day with this extortion scheme!

On the phone they said they were going to pursue litigation against me.

NOW what can I / should I do?

only you can decide how to move forward, but  I suggest reading these forums and getting educated before you do / say anything else.

63

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Higbee and Mark A. Johnson Photographer - willful entrapment

« Last post by megamail on January 25, 2019, 04:42:28 PM »

my other question is, is it worth it for me to reach out to this photographer directly to ask him to ask his lawyers to drop this action?

I understand him wanting to be compensated for wrongful infringement, but i cannot image such an artist willing to inflict pain and hardship in this particular case. i am not "sue-worthy."

64

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Higbee and Mark A. Johnson Photographer - willful entrapment

« Last post by megamail on January 25, 2019, 04:19:43 PM »

Is this willful entrapment?

First of all, as an artist i would never willfully use copyrighted images - i always get them from creative commons or free image sites.

BUT, last month I got an extortion letter from Higbee. It was on a non-professional website i put together to try to pitch a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood style children's tv show. I grabbed a picture of the ocean from some random free site.
http://www.midmodsquad.com/projects/the-green-room/what-is-a-green-room/

I responded to them with a letter that i removed the photo that looked "similar" to the one that they said was infringement.
I also explained that I had no assets for them to go after should they decide to pursue a lawsuit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, today they called me and harassed me on the phone. (I probably said too much to them.) I never admitted guilt. But I kept telling them I had nothing for them to sue and they kept asking me for proof of hardship... bank statements and tax returns.

When I asked them if they had forwarded my correspondence to their client, they said no.
When I ask them if they would forward it to their client they again said not until I send them a proof of hardship.

Then they hung up on me!

So I look up this artist they are representing.
Mark A. Johnson
https://www.markjohnson.com/index

There are all of his images without any copyright notice on the page. None of the images have watermarks or any other notice.

But when you click on the left bar "EXTRAS" there is a little menu option "A word on Copyright"
Then you click again on that and the following comes up:
All of my photography is registered with the United States Copyright Office, which also protects my work internationally. None of my photography is available for free, fair use, Creative Commons, or any other perceived free use. If you like my work, please buy a print or license it from me. It's easy and inexpensive. Thank you!
If you have any questions about use of my work, please contact me.
Aloha,
Mark
i bet his images are circulating in a few places and Higbee is having a field day with this extortion scheme!

On the phone they said they were going to pursue litigation against me.

NOW what can I / should I do?

65

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Corporation Doesn't Exist

« Last post by EHP on January 25, 2019, 02:20:11 PM »

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it. They have called and we told them the corporation was dissolved over a year ago. We would not give them any more info. They didn't like that answer and keep emailing for more info.

BTW, the caller ID says "Medici Housing," rather than "Higbee." My guess is a virtual office or some unpaid intern is calling from her apartment. Just a heads up in case someone doesn't want to talk to them.
EHP

66

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: PicRights.com

« Last post by Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi) on January 23, 2019, 06:47:54 PM »

Good advice KIR, well said.. to the op, the letter is real, and everyone "pays something" sometimes it's money if  like KIR stated, you can't take the pestering, sometimes its simply time waiting out the SOL.. Remember this is a CLAIM, not a judgement.. I'm fairly sure if I claimed you owed me some amount of cash, you wouldn't just pony up..don't be the low hanging fruit..

67

Higbee Associates Letter & Lawsuits Forum / Photo not registered with Copyright division

« Last post by 313speed on January 23, 2019, 03:20:25 PM »

Higbee responded to my request for additional information by providing an email that states the allegedly infringed photo has not been registered with the US Copyright Office. I reached out to a lawyer who provided the following information -

If the copyright owner is a foreign national then it does not need to register its copyright before filing an infringement lawsuit against you.

Registration of the copyright before your infringement was required, however, for the copyright owner (U.S. or foreign) to qualify for statutory damages or an award of its attorneys' fees to enforce the copyright. So ... your own attorney needs to determine whether the copyright was registered before you displayed it on your website. If so, the copyright owner has significant leverage against you. If not, it doesn't because it would not only have to prove its "actual damages" it would also have to pay all of its attorney fees to prosecute the case against you (though you would have to pay yours as well).

I have confirmed this elsewhere, though I would appreciate professionals chiming in on this point. What I get from this is that any settlement would fall under Davis v. Gap, Inc., 246 F.3d 152 (2d Cir. N.Y. 2001)-

“[C]ourts have construed “actual damages” by examining the fair market value of a license fee that the copyright owner would have obtained for the infringer’s use of the copyrighted material” . . . . “The question is not what the owner would have charged, but rather what is the fair market value.”

I used the URL Higbee provided and found the alleged photo would cost less than $200 to purchase through Getty. Higbee used the same tool to provide produce an estimated license fee of around 10 times that. They chose the large photo format and all digital media option to inflate the price rather than the small photo and commercial blog use they are alleging.

They did, however, drop their demand amount by about $50.

68

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: PicRights.com

« Last post by Keeping It Real on January 23, 2019, 11:13:33 AM »

Jafer,

Why would you want to give away your money even if the address or letter is legit?  All of mine were legit contacts and I stayed dark.  The layout of the letter is the same standard tactic these agencies use.  Yours is not special.  They all demand payment, they all show the image to make their claim.  Remember this is a claim by someone, not a legal order or judgment against you. 

In regard to someone else designing your website, doesn't matter, you are the owner of the site which makes you responsible party.  Not to be disrespectful, but the tone of your letter has a great deal of worry emphasized.  Perhaps you are unable to withstand their aggressive tactics to scare you into paying when you aren't even sure if they actually represent the image holder. 

If you are uncomfortable or the events give you a gut ache, then by all means pay it.  Just remember when you do something like that, you play into the hands of these image trolls.  You are a number and it is a numbers game.  If you succumb, then you were part of the low hanging fruit for them to go after.  I just heard from my troll again today after her not sending anything for over 3 weeks.  To give you an example of how you are just a number not worth notating important facts, in her latest letter to me she states the image in question is still up, yet in her letter dated first week in January, she states the image is down, but I still owe the $300.00.  I am no one to them but an easy mark if I were to give in. 

Plus the kicker is I owned the image in question purchased through iStock, but they sold to Getty and my license for this image mysteriously disappeared along with a few others.  What you should realize is the images may have been Royalty Free or not, can't say, but as has happened with me what was once a Royalty Free image became magically a Rights Managed image returned to the private party that may or may not have had a beef with Getty taking over iStock and decided to remove the licensing they had with them.  Who knows, but I won't be a pawn in their extortion game.

As in the past with these trolls, the letters get further apart as this one did and they will continue to do so, I am confident.  The dollar amount they are seeking is less than it would be to hire a legal rep, travel to my jurisdiction and file a lawsuit.  It is about weighing likelihoods with critical thinking.  Do your research as you have been doing and then decide what you can handle and cannot handle.  If you lose sleep over this stuff, then pay.  If you can gut it out and await the next troll letter and simply store copies without responding, then do that.  It is really about you and only you can decide what makes you sleep at night.

did some editing with time frames, not to mislead, but to not place exact dates due to this site is known to be monitored by these image trolls.

69

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: PicRights.com

« Last post by Jafer on January 23, 2019, 07:50:45 AM »

Hello there,

Appreciate the response thank you so much for the advise. My issue is that they will proceed to take this matter further and if in the unlikely event it is a genuine letter I may be better off dealing with the issue sooner than later. Given your experience with dealing with similar extortion letters would you be able to identify if it is genuine or not based on the following details about the company demanding the payment and my situation:

Picrights appears to be working on behalf of a legitimate company called Agence Frances Presse which has the address of 11,13 Place De La Bourse, Paris, 75002, France (note I am in the UK so this is a foreign address and the letter was received via Air Mail but with a return address of JE1 1JP which falls outside both jurisdictions). However, the address for picrights itself is disputable but I have obtained details from company house that states the company that is registered in the UK Borehamwood WD6 1JN despite a different address on picrights website which lists Switzerland, Canada and only a PO Box in London  which is a different postcode to the registered company. Also it has one person (only) listed who is a French national by the name of Anne Quiliet and a capital valuation of 100 GBP which indicates this may be an illegitimate company only setup to extort money.

If it helps the following should be noted:
1. Somebody else organized my website for me where they mentioned there was a variety of sources for free images which was used, rather than copyright protected images which picrights is claiming.

2. The bank details provided has been on various documents I have researched which involve copyright disputes from other firms not just Agence Frances Presse, that uses the exact same bank details which is rather suspicious (NATWEST  SORT CODE 50-00-00 ACCOUNT NUMBER 29729785 PICRIGHTS). However, this could be genuine if picrights receives all the money on behalf of the company they are representing.

As there are conflicting addresses and two different names used within the claims I am struggling to figure out if this is a genuine claim as I do not want to put my company in a predicament that will result in further legitimate claims. However, I will not give in just yet given the nature of the scams reported on this thread so any response from you or anybody else who has dealt with similar issues would help alot and provide me with peace of mind. If I do choose to ignore them and go dark from here on out would there be any consequences given my initial contact with them?

Again, thank you so much for taking the time out to consider my issue and providing a response.

70

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: PicRights.com

« Last post by Keeping It Real on January 22, 2019, 03:50:53 PM »

Jafer

I'm still a newbie on here also, but not new to the extortion game having dealt with several myself.  You asked if you should ignore them? My answer is yes in my opinion since it worked well for me in all my circumstances.  And trust me they got pretty aggressive, including phone calls and snail mail. I ignored all of it.  Removed the images and went dark. 

The only problem that you may have is you didn't actually ignore them since you stated you contacted picrights from the first contact.  That is not truly going dark.  Now they know you have received their demand and know you are concerned no matter how you slice it.  You gave them the bait to continue to pursue you and they more than likely will.  Will it go anywhere if you stay dark from here on out?  Probably not, but the key to going dark is to never respond. 

Remove the offending image and ignore all else.  That is my best advice having dealt with similar over the past few years.  All went past the SOL and am currently waiting out another, but they have already gone over 3 weeks since the last weekly emails I was getting for a month before the holidays.  I actually held the license on mine but iStock either lost the license or deleted it once the company sold to Getty.  Not all is what it seems in all cases.  Ultimately, you'll need to decide if you have the guts to go silent and ride out the harassment. 

Best luck