Oscar is a great man and I am very grateful to him that he is here. Oscar is also a laywer and not a weak girl who can easily get hurt. We are talking here about a very serious problem and a great damage inflicted upon the society and small businesses by greedy corporations, therefore the essence of the matter takes the priority.
Oscar is in possession of hundreds if not near a thousand of extortion letters that he has collected for the past several years and keeps collecting every day. These letters can serve as evidence of extortion for profit. He is/has represented hundreds of cases when the infringement was clearly innocent, but Masterfile and others continued to extorting 1000's for one image. He can take all of the clearly innocent infringement cases, compile them as a huge EXHIBIT A and show to the US courts that the laws in the United States should be amended to first require cease and desist notice and if the infringer refuses, apply penalties and other punitive measures. Otherwise many innocent single moms with blogs or mom and pop small businesses are unfairly tormented by this. In the UK and most of the civilized World, laws protect the innocent, but not in the USA. A change in the law, depending on how it is done might allow for a class lawsuit by those that paid 1000's and were innocent. All future victims would be protected as well.
For example:
This is in the UK:
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48)
“97.—(1) Where in an action for infringement of copyright it is shown that at the time of the infringement the defendant did not know, and had no reason to believe, that copyright subsisted in the work to which the action relates, the plaintiff is not entitled to damages against him, but without prejudice to any other remedy.”
“It is an offence under Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 to harass of debtors with a view to obtaining payment including the issue of letters which convey a threat or false information with intent to cause distress or anxiety.”
UK Copyright Troll lawyers sanctioned:
"..We had noted that Davenport Lyons lawyers were being investigated by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for their actions, which has now concluded with the two lawyers being fined £20,000 each and barred from practicing law for three months. Part of the issue was that the tribunal determined that the lawyers knew they were targeting innocent people with the scheme."
Full article:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110803/02192515373/uk-copyright-trolling-pioneers-sanctioned-actions.shtmlBecause of this website and his involvement, Oscar is sitting on a big pile of evidence against the Copyright Trolls. Given a proper strategy, he can file a class action lawsuit for multiple causes including: extortion, blackmail, harassment, emotional distress, mail fraud, wire fraud etc..
But because it is easier to just collect $195 per letter and can be quite profitable if you have 1000 cases and more every month, he won't do it and will be telling everyone that what they do is legal and that he and nobody else can't do anything about that and that "the Copyright Trolls are here to stay". Not to mention that once in a while Oscar can make 1000's if bigger case goes to court. Oscar a defense lawyer on the side of infringers is profiting from the Copyright Troll abuse. It is well deserved but at some point Oscar should fire back and contribute to changing the laws in the USA instead of just sitting on this evidence and not doing anything but profiting from the abuse together with the Copyright Trolls and their lawyers.
Most if not all of the victims that are willing to share their correspondence and information do it through this website and many hire Oscar because of his advertising here and cheaper fee for a bulk response letter. They don't go anywhere else because of this website. The evidence collected should not just go wasted and should be used collectively to change the copyright laws in the USA to make them similar to UK and the rest of the civilized world. Oscar has the evidence. He needs to concentrate, make a good plan and strategy and fire back.
Oscar could easily write a letter to the Attorney General in New York telling them that he has all the evidence of extortion, blackmail, harassment etc.. available upon request, explain what is happening and recommend changes to the laws. Attorney General of New York would listen. Oscar could ask the AG to investigate Masterfile how they conduct their business. They would investigate them. Masterfile is the worst and will be the first one to go. Oscar, why don't you want to do that? Please help the people. Yes, you can! Yes, it is possible! Yes, it can be done! and Yes, the AG would most likely sanction Masterfile to limit their abuse. This would set the precedent to change the laws and protect innocent infringers in the USA.
In fact, this is what all the innocent infringers should do. Write to the AG all over the USA and ask to investigate Masterfile. Tell them all that you know and point to this website as reference. Instead of writing letters to the scumbags to negotiate, write to the Attorney General. Your time will be better used.
The last question is: Why is the name of this website "Extortion Letter"? Why Masterfile or Getty does not file a lawsuit against this website for libel, defamation and damage to their business? Why? This website hurts their profits, because people refuse to pay after getting educated. The Trolls are obviously afraid, because they know that they will not win. At least they don't want to take that risk. They know that it will be proven to them that with knowledge they are harassing and criminally extorting money from innocent victims. Extortion is a criminal offence. There is not such a thing as legalized extortion. There either is extortion or there isn't. If innocent people are suffering because of what they do, this practice must be outlawed in the USA as promptly as possible just as it is done in the UK and other countries.
I have a valid point. It is not a time to debate feelings. Oscar is a lawyer, not a weak girl whose feelings can be easily hurt. It is very important to concentrate on finding a solution to prevent these companies from praying on the innocent. Thousands of people would be grateful if Oscar himself sent few complaint letters to the Attorney General in NY asking them to investigate Masterfile (which is the easiest target due to their actions) and offered his evidence upon the government's request.
Topic: Class Action Lawsuit Against Masterfile. (Read 10814 times)