Hello,
After today's events in my house I figured i'll share a little of experience I now have, so heres a word of advice when it comes to making a copyrighted site on the internet.
Today I have recived an ODD call from a guy who claims he is the spokeman of a company called photobank or something like that (I forgot what it was, I can check later if you wish.) he told me they will be sueing me for breaking the copyright laws for illegal usage of one of their copyrighted photo's.
Also he had added that if I wish to not go through the trial with a judge and all, I can just settle a deal of 2000$ with them and I will be granted the premittion to use that picture.
At first, of course, I was thinking "What the ****? This a joke, no judge will let you win a trial for 2000$+ because I was un-awarley using a copyrighted picture of you'rs!!" But then I understood the cold truth, most judges will, after reading a lot about this company, and her likes, they win almost daily in things like this and they usualy has a huge battery of lawyers, for example, they won a trial for 10,000$ because a small company used 7 of her pictures on her own site, and they had even bigger wins for over 50 and 60 thousand dollars.
Now to my side, did I know I used an illegal copy of a copyrighted picture? Nope, that picture was found on google and had NO Copyright mark on it.
Whats the point of all this post now you ask? The point is, this is a word of friendly warning, I am being forced to pay over 600$ (After we reached a settlment) just to not take this case infront of a judge and lose way more than 2000$ for breaking the copyright laws, the warning is fella's that if you are going to ever make a COPYRIGHTED site, a small site, a big site or even an industrial site... Shoot you'r own pictures, paint you'r own paintings, don't use google! Its not safe as its used to be any longer and one day you could wake up to the sound of a call of a photobank company that is intending to legally blackmail you, or even sue you.
Now here is something of my opinion that makes this even worse(remember its only my thoughts now), I believe this kinds of companys IMPLENT those pictures in sites that google and the likes of google easly tracks, to make people d/l them and use them for logo's or whatever, and then sue people they can trace that has fallen to this very sneaky, in a legal way, trap.
I'm sorry for the length, I hope you find this helpfull by any way.
Don't be sorry for me, because although I have written this as this has happend to me in person, it did not, however it did happen to a person which is highly related to me, but it does not matter this way or another.
Best of wishes,
-Jo.
After today's events in my house I figured i'll share a little of experience I now have, so heres a word of advice when it comes to making a copyrighted site on the internet.
Today I have recived an ODD call from a guy who claims he is the spokeman of a company called photobank or something like that (I forgot what it was, I can check later if you wish.) he told me they will be sueing me for breaking the copyright laws for illegal usage of one of their copyrighted photo's.
Also he had added that if I wish to not go through the trial with a judge and all, I can just settle a deal of 2000$ with them and I will be granted the premittion to use that picture.
At first, of course, I was thinking "What the ****? This a joke, no judge will let you win a trial for 2000$+ because I was un-awarley using a copyrighted picture of you'rs!!" But then I understood the cold truth, most judges will, after reading a lot about this company, and her likes, they win almost daily in things like this and they usualy has a huge battery of lawyers, for example, they won a trial for 10,000$ because a small company used 7 of her pictures on her own site, and they had even bigger wins for over 50 and 60 thousand dollars.
Now to my side, did I know I used an illegal copy of a copyrighted picture? Nope, that picture was found on google and had NO Copyright mark on it.
Whats the point of all this post now you ask? The point is, this is a word of friendly warning, I am being forced to pay over 600$ (After we reached a settlment) just to not take this case infront of a judge and lose way more than 2000$ for breaking the copyright laws, the warning is fella's that if you are going to ever make a COPYRIGHTED site, a small site, a big site or even an industrial site... Shoot you'r own pictures, paint you'r own paintings, don't use google! Its not safe as its used to be any longer and one day you could wake up to the sound of a call of a photobank company that is intending to legally blackmail you, or even sue you.
Now here is something of my opinion that makes this even worse(remember its only my thoughts now), I believe this kinds of companys IMPLENT those pictures in sites that google and the likes of google easly tracks, to make people d/l them and use them for logo's or whatever, and then sue people they can trace that has fallen to this very sneaky, in a legal way, trap.
I'm sorry for the length, I hope you find this helpfull by any way.
Don't be sorry for me, because although I have written this as this has happend to me in person, it did not, however it did happen to a person which is highly related to me, but it does not matter this way or another.
Best of wishes,
-Jo.