Picrights & AFP Copyright Infringement

[snacksdaily]

Hello all,

I am being fined by Picrights and AFP for a photo that has been properly copyrighted. I have contacted the owned of the photo and she told me that she sold the photo to AFP/Picrights.

The photo is of a art installation that I created at the Oregon Eclipse Festival in 2017. I am being fined $1065 for the photo and after contacting them, pleading my case, asking for a fair market value price, asking for the price that they are selling the photo for, etc and they went down to $375. I then sent an email explaining that they $375 settlement price seemed to be a bit much and offered a lower figured based on other pictures I found on istock.com (or something like that) and Geoff Beal (my Picrights contact) said, in short, no and that the new settlement price was now $475 -- $100 more for wasting his time.

 They priced my use as a Business Blog, although I am not selling anything that has to do with that photo. I took the photo down immediately. I contacted representatives at AFP. They said there is nothing they can do.

https://www.gettyimages.ca/license/835653162

I have been reading a lot of the cases on this forum, but I am not sure what to do. The decision I have to make is whether or not to pay the $475 now, or hope that they won't sue me. The price of the settlement goes back to $1065 after today, so I wonder if they would be more prone to sue me for a sum that is greater than $500.

Has anyone dealt with a situation similar to this: ~$1000 settlement option from Picrights/AFP for copyright infringement? What happened and how did you deal with it?

This was an email i received two days ago:






PicRights Ltd. on behalf of Agence France-Presse
3 Concorde Gate, 4th Floor
Toronto, ON, Canada M3C 3N7
Telephone: +1 888 367 7778, www.picrights.com

August 9, 2018

Dear X,

This is a courtesy reminder that the discount we offered to resolve your unauthorized use of Agence France-Presse's imagery is due to expire in three days (as of the date of this message).

Accordingly, you are requested to take one of the following actions immediately:

Please remit settlement payment online at https://resolve.picrights.com/570136747084 or call our office at +1 888 367 7778 so that we may process a credit card over the phone. Please remove the image if you have not done so already.
If you have licensing documentation, please provide this information as instructed previously.
If there are any other extenuating circumstances which are preventing resolution of this matter within the next 72 hours, please provide details of such immediately.
Unfortunately, should we not hear from you within 72 hours of this notice and should the matter remain unresolved the discounted settlement offer will be withdrawn.

If you believe you have received this email in error please contact us with your reference number 5701-3674-7084 at 1 888 367 7778, or [email protected].

On behalf of PicRights and Agence France-Presse, thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to assisting you in resolving this matter.

Sincerely,
Geoff Beal
Copyright Compliance Officer
PicRights Ltd.

To learn more about PicRights, copyright and this specific matter please visit: https://resolve.picrights.com/570136747084.
This correspondence is without prejudice to PicRights’s and Agence France-Presse's, rights and remedies, all of which are expressly reserved.

[kingkendall]

You tried to settle in good faith and they upped the settlement price.  What does that tell you?  There's no reasoning with extortionists.  If I were you, I would put documents concerning this in a file and go on living your life.  The whole scheme is to scare you to death and srite a check.  Nothing is real until a summons and complaint filed in a court comes in the mail.  The chances of that is extremely small.  And even if it does, it's not the end of the world.  Just get out of the scare stiff stage and deal with your real life and don't give a moments thought to these clowns. 

[DavidVGoliath]

Did you click through the URLs in their post? I did, the day that they posted: turns out they paid online and settled the matter.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

gotta love that they post the confidentiality agreement publicly...

[kingkendall]

That's why this scam continues.  Because of fools like that who pay

[UnfairlyTargeted]

Wait, did anyone catch this?

The photo is of a art installation that I created at the Oregon Eclipse Festival in 2017.

So the piece of trash photographer involved in this was petty enough to go after someone who created the art in the photograph?  Without this poor victim, the photographer had nothing to photograph.  Talk about petty, greedy, and messed up.  This is exactly the shit I see all the time from trolls.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I noticed that.

If I were the original poster, I wouldn't be looking to pay them money. I would start insisting that this installation was my original artwork, that the photographer did not get my permission to take the photo, and that I insist that they take it down from their licensing catalogue immediately. Furthermore, I would ask that they preserve all previous licensing records for this image while I retain a lawyer. I'd make it clear that I intend to seek compensation for the sales of the photograph of the installation and ask for contact information for the photographer.

I have a whole second phase of attack in mind too. But I'll save that for another time.

[Matthew Chan]

Very nice to see you back, Jerry!

I love your response! This is why we miss you!

And please don't keep us waiting too long... We want to hear your OTHER line of attack!

I noticed that.

If I were the original poster, I wouldn't be looking to pay them money. I would start insisting that this installation was my original artwork, that the photographer did not get my permission to take the photo, and that I insist that they take it down from their licensing catalogue immediately. Furthermore, I would ask that they preserve all previous licensing records for this image while I retain a lawyer. I'd make it clear that I intend to seek compensation for the sales of the photograph of the installation and ask for contact information for the photographer.

I have a whole second phase of attack in mind too. But I'll save that for another time.

[DavidVGoliath]

If I were the original poster, I wouldn't be looking to pay them money. I would start insisting that this installation was my original artwork, that the photographer did not get my permission to take the photo, and that I insist that they take it down from their licensing catalogue immediately. Furthermore, I would ask that they preserve all previous licensing records for this image while I retain a lawyer. I'd make it clear that I intend to seek compensation for the sales of the photograph of the installation and ask for contact information for the photographer.

Eh, any good IP lawyer will tell you that's not going to happen

law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/120