Emails from attorney's for Fameflynet

[JoleenLeeann]

Hey guys,

I am new here. I have been reading various topics for the past several weeks and have already learned quite a bit about this extortion troll world. It's is pretty scary to me because I am just a girl who put together a fan-site for strictly fan enjoyment. Now I am thinking about shutting it down for good. I never made any profits and have zero ads on my site. Basically I was given some beach photos of a celebrity and put them on my site. Next thing I know the attorney's for FameFlynet are contacting me with some heavy charges. They literally want thousands. At this point I am still ignoring them and I will just take it day by day. I am trying not to let them intimidate me. It freaks me out that they have my full home address though.

  RE:
               
                        Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Image

                        Our File Number: 111125
               

We are the attorneys for FameFlynet, Inc. and write you concerning what appears
to be violations of the United States Copyright Law, Title 17 of the United
States Code ("U.S.C."), which either you and/or your organization (collectively
referred to here as "you") have committed and which have been brought to our
attention by our client.

Specifically, 17 U.S.C. §106 provides, in part, that the owner of a
copyright has exclusive rights to their copyrighted material, including the
rights to reproduce the material, to prepare derivative works based upon the
material, and to distribute copies of the material to the public by sale or other
transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. Your website
 has, based on our client's records, without a valid license or permission from the author, and therefore in violation of the aforementioned law, made commercial use
of our client's copyrighted material. In the table included below there are copies
of the copyrighted material in question along with proof of your unauthorized usage
on your website. You may also view the data in this table at our website
payonline.sanderslawpllc.com by entering the following access code...................
Stacy Berkowitz

Paralegal
Sanders Law, PLLC
100 Garden City Plaza Suite 500
Garden City, NY 11530
516-203-7600 x 3228
Direct Fax (516)282-7847



Then it goes on and on and on about each infringement being worth over 150,000 each etc... and I know y'all are aware of this type letter so I didn't paste the entire thing here.

I am hoping I will get lucky and they will realize I am not budging and falling for their trap. I am not easily intimidated so it will take a lot to break me! I don't have the money anyway...hell I was just laid off from my job and have ongoing health issues. It just makes me really hate the internet and has completely sucked out the fun of owning and operating a fan photo gallery.

[The-Gobbler]

Well as you probably know by now, these trolls are relentless. My advice is to nuke the site completely, check that there is nothing in web archive and continue to ignore them. Being an individual and not a company it's unlikely they think you have a lot of money so you have a good chance of letting this pass.

[Engel Nyst]

Don't freak out, it's pointless and they don't give a damn. Notice they claim your usage was commercial, which according to you wasn't, they seem to not have verified anyway.

Read around, and keep in mind, they haven't proven anything at all yet. They may or may not have copyright over the images, they may or may not have registered the images,  the claim of thousands is not backed by anything. I would look for the images on the web, to figure out where they're available and for what price, just for my information. It might be that celebrity images have unusual prices, but cool off, it might equally happen that a non-commercial fan page has some potential of fair use.

No matter what, though, you should remove the images for now.

[Oscar Michelen]

You should be aware that FameFlyNet (unlike Getty Images) does file suit. They also usually register their images with the Copyright Office as well.  We have been involved in a few lawsuits with them so they do not merely troll.  On occasion they do file lawsuits.