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Should I risk taking this copyright violation to court?
Anonymous6 views3 answers
Hello,
I received what some may call a "copyright troll" email stating that I need to cease and desist and pay up $1k for a one time use of an image. My family's attorney called the contact that was listed in the email (the CEO of the company) and requested a copy of the copyright. Well, we got it but it said that the particular registration was for 5,500 images and when looking further, we realized that the names of the images were located in a spreadsheet. The contact did not send me the spreadsheet and with a company that has 100k's of images, there is no proof that the image I had innocently placed on my blog 2+ years ago is indeed copyrighted.
If he refuses to send this information to me, should I just ignore him and risk it going to court?
Thank you so much for your help.
You cannot and should not ignore this. Copyright owners frequently file for protection for a large number of images as part of a collection. This practice is entirely appropriate. If you force the copyright owner and its attorneys to spend more time on this case, they will probably increase the settlement demand. And with respect, your placement of the image on your blog was not "innocent". You had no right to us that image and you surely knew that at the time. You face charges of willful infringement and if you go to court, you could face liability for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per image plus attorneys fees. You need to retain experienced IP counsel to settle this. The $1000 demand is the least of your problems---if you do not handle this properly your liability could increase exponentially.
Very interesting set of facts. What I think you will find is that other attorneys will not want to interfere with your existing relationship with your attorney who appears to have done the right thing: demand backup for the claims being asserted. The next step is a decision to be made after consultation with your attorney.
Andrew Kevin JacobsonBusiness AttorneyOakland, CA ·
You have asked a question that only you and your counsel should answer, as it deals with how much risk you are willing to accept.
Every expression now is "copyrighted" as soon as it is released to the world. Registering a copyright before an act of infringement allows for the recovery of statutory damages and attorneys' fees. I have some real concerns about the propriety of the copyright registration that you mention, but that would require a good deal of research before finding out whether it is acceptable. You need to discuss this with your current counsel in private. If you feel you need another opinion, then there are lots of lawyers on in the LA area that could help.
