Off Topic For anyone with a website or business ...PLEASE READ!!

A heads pop to all City fans and I urge you to pass this information on to anyone you know with similar business.

Yesterday, I received a letter from a company based in London, called PicRights. Within the document they stated that I had used a copyrighted image without authority and as such they were looking for a settlement fee of £406 to bring the matter to a close, acting on behalf off a company in Canada called Design Pics Inc. Now this web site has been off line for some 2 months as it wasn't working and yet they sent a screenshot of the image which I recognised. I didn't build the website and when we did, I paid for images from Shutterstock and Getty and was assured that anything else used was Royalty Free. This image was actually pulled from AliExpress with permission of the seller.

The document sent was decidedly dodgy, laser printed letterhead and within it, they said at the bottom here are your methods off payment that are actually not there. I checked on the web and there are differing reports saying pay (and I respect the rights ope a photographer hence paying Getty and Shutterstock) and others that says this is a fishing invoice scam and it should be ignored. On their web page they affiliate themselves with a US company called Higbee and Associates who are renowned for Copyright trolling in the USA. in the UK there are scores of pages and forums including a FB site especially for PicRights giving advice etc...

I've spoken to an IP lawyer today and they have heard plenty of this company as have Trading Standards. They have asked that I ask this company 4 pertinent questions in response to their so far 'request' for payment. Letter dated 12 October delivered yesterday, respond in 14 days.

WHY AM I TELLING YOU ALL THIS. IF YOU HAVE A WEBSITE PLEASE CHECK THE SOURCE OF YOUR IMAGERY, NO MATTER HOW IRRELEVANT YOU THINK THE IMAGE MAY BE. IF YOU ARE BLOGGING USING TWITTER, BE CAREFUL OF THE IMAGE SOURCE IF YOU ARE THE ORIGINATOR. BE CAREFUL WHEN PRODUCING FLIERS OR PRINTED MATERIAL. ONE NOT FOR PROFIT CHARITY BLOGGED ABOUT AN EVENT THEY WERE HOSTING AND PICKED AN IMAGE THEY THOUGHT WAS ROYALTY FREE SEEN AND USED MANY TIMES BEFORE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, THE SAME COMPANY HAVE COME AFTER THEM FOR £1600 WHICH THE TRUSTEES HAVE HAD TO FUND,

PLEASE SHARE. I TRUST I'M NOT BREAKING THE SITE RULES BRINGING IT TO PEOPLES ATTENTION.

 

any legit company owning photo rights as far as i know would have to give you an option to remove any offending products before proposing a fine or legal action
it's never pay first ask questions later

 

Which were, just out of interest?

 

1. That the company show the registration number of the image. If its not registered its not copyrighted.
2. That they produce a signed authority to act.

In my case the image used does not appear on any of 3 sites linked to Design Inc. so

3. They show the IP of the image.
4. In the images absence they produce the contract between the owner of the image and themselves and the contracted dates.
5. Evidence of the valuation of the image at the time during the contracted dates.

 

Thats the crux Brady. They have search robots, they find images own Blogs, web sites etc. They target small companies and threaten legal action. They tell you to remove immediately, which of course everyone does (my site as I said has been down for 2 months) and pay!!!... some will, some won't, which is why there is a large amount of web forum discussion.

 

Isn't he trying to establish if the image originator/owner is behind this claim?

PicRights are a legit company, but have some poor practices. If they are legitimately pursuing this on behalf of the rights owner, and it hasn't been licensed properly, the answer is to pay up.

It needs to be established first though.

 

Seemingly you do when you advertise it for sale or license through a site designed to sell that image for the purposes of the user. But thanks all for the advice.