Getting sued, want to share my thoughts!

[drytech]

$1 per day? Are lawyers REALLY that greedy?

Just remove the content, tell them you're sorry, and inform that that you never made more than a buck per day from it.

WAIT, THE COMPANY THAT SENT YOU THAT LETTER ISN'T APPLE, IS IT?

They don't care how much a site is making. I got a pack of templates from ebay and put one up on a site, then forgot about the site for a year. Never made one dime from it, now I am being sued for $4000 for copyright infringment on a photo on the template. We go to court next month. I took it down the moment I get the cease and desists demand, but it didn't matter, they still sued.

So don't take this lightly like most are suggesting, they can sue you and will. Even if you don't have money they will get a lien against and property (land, tv, furniture) and or a judgement that will remain on your credit for years. So don't do something stupid such as sending them a picture of your cock. These little boys in here only think with their cocks.

 

[Seuss]

First off, as far as I know, the only way to correctly summon someone to court is by serving them papers, which need to be sent via certified/registered mail or by a police officer, etc.

I learned from one of the biggest crooks I've ever known that he at one point had a few people trying to sue him. If they caught him at his place and asked for his signature, he'd sign it Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny. He then can always deny that he ever got it, and never gets summoned to court. The people haggled him for over a year before realizing that guess what, this guy understands how the system works and uses it to his advantage.

Have you EVER received anything besides a fedex / ups shipment (can't be used for summons) that has to have a signature that was good? I don't know of any....

We all need to learn how the system works in order to use it to our advantage, and the legal/court system is the first step.

 

[NIXMY]

So there is no proof then. Don't worry.

Surely there is. Unless they were halfly retarded, they did not took screenshots. What's the point in contacting lawyer to sue someone without proofs...

I would simply remove copyrighted content and apologize. Why make needlessly this thing bigger than it is.

 

[virtual.indiano]

Op can you tell us what is the present status? Did you ignore them or contact them? What did they do next?

 

[shinkari]

i've got one of those letters before and all they want is for me to take down the blog and fill some forms stating i am not going to do it again or some sort .. . . i simply put down the blog and they didnt bother me ever since

 

[SSL9000J]

For future reference, flickr.com has a "creative commons" option. (Click the 'advanced search' on their website, somewhere down the page is a check box to the effect of "only search within creative commons media.")

Creative commons is a way of saying "public domain", in other words the pictures that are copyright-free. You may want to credit the photographer, just to be safe.

As for the written content, there are public domain sources as well, such as project guttenberg, but you probably won't find much in the way of current trends. (Charles Darwin didn't have any ipads to review.) Brush up on your rewriting skills.

As an afterthought: a written article is subject to copyright, however facts themselves are not. So if your site describes the specs of a product, for example "The ipad weighs 1.33 pounds, measures 9 1/2 by 7 inches..." your fine. Just don't copy Apple's sales pitch word-for-word.

Oh, and I'm not an attorney and none of this should constitute any sort of legal advice. "iPad" is a registered trademark of Apple Incorporated. Please Steve Jobs don't hurt me.

 

[teeniegenie]

This is incorrect as far as the United States is concerned. If I am trying to sue you and you keep evading service of process or I cannot legitimately find you, I can apply to the court for a default against you without you ever being served. The rule of thumb is to always accept service - you want to fight for your rights because the opposing party and the judge won't!

Service of process has to be in person by a neutral third party - not by mail, etc., although judges will in certain circumstances allow for service by publication in a local newspaper/periodical if all else fails.

First off, as far as I know, the only way to correctly summon someone to court is by serving them papers, which need to be sent via certified/registered mail or by a police officer, etc.

 

[loclhero]

So somebody wants to sue you for posting a few copywritten images on your blog which makes $1 per day, I would send that letter back in a package with dog poop in it.

thar r no rulez on interwebz

More bullshit legal advice from someone on BHW.
To the OP: Was the letter or email from GEtty Images?

If it was, drop the fucking site. They will hound you for anything they want. I know more than one person who had a little website that didn't make fuck all but they used images from Getty. They were pursued MERCILESSLY.

 

[teeniegenie]

Our firm just had a client get hit with a $1,000 demand from Getty for using one of their images accidentally. Local Hero is not kidding when he says they are merciless! Be careful with your autoblogs everyone...:croc:

More bullshit legal advice from someone on BHW.
To the OP: Was the letter or email from GEtty Images?

If it was, drop the fucking site. They will hound you for anything they want. I know more than one person who had a little website that didn't make fuck all but they used images from Getty. They were pursued MERCILESSLY.

 

[tomasp]

hi flashgordon88

just remove the copyrighted content from your site completely and inform whoever has contacted u. last year i got a letter from a lawyer of cb vendor saying that i'm violating the law by using their content. i was his affiliate on cb, framing the site through my domain and traffic was converting at 0.5%, traffic wh only. i simply deleted the frame page, uploaded new one framing their competitors site, sent both the lawyer and cb vendor "sorry+bye" letter. never heard anything from them since.

 

[nadroj]

OP, what ended up happening if anything?

 

[loclhero]

Just a bit more for the OP

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=18&gs_id=1c&xhr=t&q=getty+images+suing&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=getty+images+suing&aq=0&aqi=g2&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=c22dbf1ad5dc4c1f&biw=1024&bih=540

 

[xgnux]

I find it quiet funny to steal stuff and complain if you get sued. If you steal you can get caught.

Think about it. You create a website and someone steals your ideas, pictures articles.
You prob. dont know it but it can seriuosly hurt your ranking if someone steals your stuff.

I think it would be nicer to ask to remove but for example i have a friend who ranks for a very competive keyword. He gets copied by 80+ people per month~.

First he asked nicely but he spends like 20 hours per month for this. Now he sues people and gets like 10-15k per month this way. Ask yourself: What would you do?

Of course he dont takes money from teens who didnt know of broke people but also companys do copy his stuff.

 

[Susanhill36]

Nice meeting! There must be a lot of amazing things to discover here. Many thanks for nice sharing!

 

[jwa55121]

Remove just the images the content is legal since they provided the rss feed to post their content. It will cost the company more to pursue this case in court than the $1800. I wouldn't reply back.

 

[profits]

The first thing is to ignore all legal advice you get in a forum. Most of these answers are incorrect and some just stupid. Before you even started a business you should have consulted professionals (attorney, accountant etc.) for anything involved in your business that you are not an expert in. In any case, especially if you are going to try to profit off others IP than you should consult with an attorney before you even get started and plan ahead for any problems that can arise from your specific business.

Just some stuff that is plain wrong advice:

It doesn't cost a large company any money to pursue a law suit. They have lawyers on the payroll they are already putting out money on.

It does not cost $1K to file a DMCA. If you can read instructions it should only cost the price of sending a certified letter. No different than the cost of sending a C&D.

You can still be sued if you don't have money. Collecting a judgement is a whole different legal process. You can also have a portion of future income awarded in a judgement.

Bankruptcy (here in the US) is not as easy as it was. If you are not enable to file the forms yourself look at a cost of around $1K for someone else to do it. It costs more the more complicated it is, as with a LLC attempting to hide assets through complicated methods to make them harder to find.

In my opinion, it's a lot less work and effort to create something original that will be evergreen. I'd rather be sitting out on my beach than building sites that make a dollar a day.

 

[machines-in-motion]

Creative commons is a way of saying "public domain", in other words the pictures that are copyright-free. You may want to credit the photographer, just to be safe

Not quite. It's only free if you're not using it for commercial purposes, which is irrelevant for pretty much anything on this forum.

 

[Expertpeon]

Your attempts to "hide" things can be easily discovered - trust me, I know from experience as one who has gone "searching" for hidden assets of another.

It's not exactly relevant to a case in the US if you find assets purchased in South America.
In fact, the deeds are likely owned (if you know what you're doing) by companies in THOSE countries.
Good luck getting them.

Bankruptcy isn't as automatic or easy as it once was. If you make more than a certain amount - you can't file a Chapter 7 and wiggle out of a lawsuit. Furthermore, bankruptcy can have some serious repurcussions down the road - even for the rest of your life. Look at any type of application for credit (credit card, home loan, business loan, etc.) and many, if not most, will ask you whether you have EVER filed for bankruptcy. It will follow you forever and, if you screw up again after you have filed, you can't file again for another 8 years!

Not even talking about individual bankruptcy, I'm talking about filing for bankruptcy with the LLC #1. If a business uses an image eliciting (by accident or otherwise), at best the owner could go after the LLC.
That would be filed as a debt again the business.... there's absolutely no other options. This isn't like some kind of loan, or thing were you cosigned so that your business could get funding. This is an attempt at judgments and an attempt to lien against the "profits" of the business.
Negative balance sheet = collapsing LLC = only a dumb company would come after you for it.

 

[stukie crisp]

If you're getting the old cease and decist letter, I imagine you're doing something right. I would tweak the bot to do some spinning and change the size of the image. Companies like getty images have their biz model centered around these letters. Make it hard for them to reach you next time and you'll be fine.

 

[maplesyrup]

When you get a lawyer, usually they can work out a deal with them that involves taking down your site and sign to make sure it doestn' happen again.