My father in law (FIL) received a settlement demand letter from David Lowe, Esq.(Seattle, WA) representing Signatours Corporation. It is an obvious "form letter." The situation is, my husband posted a craigslist ad for his father's time share. Via google images he used a picture of the community pool at the resort among 6 other imagines that were our own. By using a fake email to respond to the ad they got the name and phone number of my in laws. Four months later, the demand letter. First letter was rec'd via certified mail. The attachment referenced was not our craigslist ad, it was some other poor victims from 2013. As naive as he is, my FIL called the law firm and through conversation the figured out they attached the wrong file to the letter. So they emailed him the correct attachment and evidence of the email of how they obtained proof of ownership. They demanded $6,000. My FIL offered $1,500, they rejected it. Now demanding $3,000 in 3 business days. Now some of my questions:
- The copyright is filed with Sunspots. They have mutual owners. How can Signatours be the ones claiming the infringement? Some prepaid legal told him via the mutual ownership it doesn't matter. Also the copyright is "cd of digital images." How do we even know if this image is part of it?
I noticed they have filed 6 lawsuits in the past week. How can we see the details of these cases? I've searched and it appears we need a PACER account??
- My FIL has said too much to them. Are we past the point of no return? He just wants to pay the $3,000 and move on. After reading through this forum I feel we would have had options if he never picked up the phone.
My FIL has mentioned "my son may have done the post." I'm afraid they will demand from us. The latest email contained a contract to sign. I want all of our name indemnified. FIL thinks its unnecessary. What do you think?
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This all makes me sick. This image did not take away from their business, it was posted for a couple of weeks. The unit was rented under market market value of the resort, no one profited from this picture. We've learned a painful lesson. Sunspots and Signatours are predatory. Sunspots has horrible reviews and they don't even have any business on the resort anymore. I remember years ago they were everywhere. Obviously their horrible reviews have done them in and now they are resorting to this trolling scheme. Would something like this hold up in court? I would also like to "out" these folks.
Topic: Advice on Demand Letter (Read 6646 times)