Masterfile people responsible for your miseries

[FreedomFighter]

This only shows how horrible Masterfile company is and proves that John L MacDougall is far from being nice. In fact, he should *DELETED* and write his own letter instead of cowardly hiding behind a lawyer.

The post above described the facts as they were.

True/False

John L MacDougall at Masterfile writes letters to extort as much money as he possibly can  (I say, most agree that it is TRUE)

Those that go after others in order to extort money can be called *DELETED*  (I say, most agree that it is TRUE)

One that extorts money can also be called a “Pirate”. (I say, most agree that it is TRUE)

The term "Somali Pirate" maybe offensive because he is in Toronto, not in Somalia. However Somalis are very decent and hard working people, so I don’t really see where is the problem???

If Masterfile *DELETED* were fair, honest, ethical and had moral standards, nobody would feel that they are extorting money.

The picture of John L MacDougall as “Poster Boy” posted by one of the members here with the text on it was hilarious. I was laughing for several days.

People are offended by rude and senseless letters from John MacDougall! The reputation and record that he has earned for himself as The "Poster Boy" of the "Demand/Extortion Letter" will stay with him forever! and not any of his lawyers will ever be able to erase it.

I have never sent Masterfile a penny. The Statute of limitations of 3 years means that they can no longer go after me!

Nobody should ever pay Masterfile any more than they should. The more money you send them, the more money they will have to pay their lawyers to go after people.  If nobody sent them anything, they would have been bankrupt a long time ago.

I am exercising my Freedom of Speech and nobody else here should be afraid to do it either!

[Matthew Chan]

I should point out that Freedom of Speech does not really apply on these forums.  It is not owned or operated publicly or by any entity related to the government. The forums are privately owned and privately managed.

This forum does not have to exist. Nor does it have to permit anyone to post at all.

There are "house rules". We encourage open discussion but we insist on following "house rules".  Again, it is to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high and not become a disreputable free-for-all like so many other places on the Internet.

We do not operate or participate in a "free-for-all" here on ELI.

Thanks for understanding.

Matthew

[Oscar Michelen]

Matt has stated what my position would be, perfectly. Thanks all for your responses on this issue

[dontgivein]

I have been reading all the posts and I don't like several things.

It looks like I am being set up as a scapegoat to blame for the entire discussion topic. I find it very unfair. The fun begun after "SoylentGreen" took a photograph from Linked-In of John MacDougall and wrote on it "I Will Be Rich As Somali Pirate". Another user "laverne" posted his laughs about it and said that he had also received a letter from John MacDougall, then Oscar came out and said that John is nice and professional. Well... I posted my disagreement with Oscar. My post included words such as "henchmen" and "cold blooded monster" when I referred to John and his helpers/lawyers. The recent atack from John MacDougall showed how "nice" John MacDougall and Masterfile is proving my point.

The image posted by SoylentGreen and the laughing post by another user were completely removed by the moderators of this website. My post was left there to put the entire blame on. I am not asking to remove it. I wished you had never deleted the content from it, because there was nothing bad in it.

I really do not understand what the fuss is about my post anyway. The words I used were not "Street Yard" words and I did not go overboard. The entire website is dedicated to the topic of extortion by Masterfile and their friends. I don't believe the words I used were offensive at all. They described their pathetic attempts of getting rich at the cost of others. Given my anonymity, I was very polite. I could have easily used derogatory vocabulary and said anyting I wanted. I didn't.

Suing me for defamation? I can do the same because I feel greatly offended, singled out and defamed by Masterfile's approach. Besides, if what I said is true, which it is, it is not a defamation. All one needs to do is to read victims testimonials in this forum. John MacDougall, being the Senior Compliance Officer, one of the main if not the main persons behind the "demand/extortion letter" is most likely the one responsible.

As far as taking a court order for my IP address?
I am not "behind 7 proxies" as one user said. I use several web proxies vertically one on top of another in countries on different continents. The difference is that I do not exist behind them because I use a public computer. I do it to protect my freedom of speech and my right to privacy. I do it because I know how predatory John MacDougal and Masterfile corporation is and I will not give them the satisfaction to use their weapons against me.

I recommend everyone here to do the same to protect themselves. Let them punch the air and send their letters to Santa Claus.

Nothing that I wrote in my posts was illegal nor defamatory. Please don't let John MacDougall or Masterfile label me with some garbage because I will not allow it. I will sue them myself for defaming me and limiting my freedom of speech. John MacDougall and Masterfile have defamed themselves through years of merciless extortion of thousands of dollars from the unaware public earning themselves millions of dollars. They go after stay-home-moms, mom-and-pops etc... common.. open your eyes!

Deleting words from my posts is not good, because others may think that there was something bad posted. There wasn't. The words were full of well deserved criticism. If John MacDougall and Masterfile had not been extorting money from the public for years, they would not have been criticized. If one does such things, one would be foolish not to expect very sharp criticism.

I belive the most touching was his picture posted with a funny text "I will be rich as Somali Pirate", but that wasn't me who posted it and I never laughed at it publicly either. Some people here have a very good sense of humor. They should not be blamed for it. Conan and Jay Leno do it every day.

Therefore, please don't give me the entire credit for that subject.

Another thing that I dislike is Masterfile coming here and reading what their victims post. Masterfile, Getty and others should be blocked from viewing this forum. This forum is to help their victims fight them. Masterfile may be using it to their advantage. They are reading every post and have reacted quickly when they saw something they didn't like. Mathew and Oscar, on behalf of all the victims that share their despair here posting their personally identifying details, please ban these predators from accessing this website, reading the posts and trying to limit our basic freedoms by calling us criminals.

When compared, Getty which is based in the USA is actually not as bad as Canadian based Masterfile. Getty does not attempt to extort thousands of dollars per image as Masterfile. Getty does not put liens on people houses to ruin their lives as Masterfile because of some stupid picture. Getty's business is diverisfied. Masterfile's actions are a clear predatory extortion. To see it all one needs to do is read the actual stories that their victims posted in this forum. One can compile a whole book on it. Some day it may make it to CNBC speciall programming called "Canadian Greed", Hey, that is a great idea. Lets all write to CNBC, 20/20, Dateline and ask them to cover it. This would put an end to this finally and the laws will be amended to protect the public from all these predators.

Yours,
Don't Give In

[Matthew Chan]

In the interest of not duplicating my reply to DGI's latest post, people can read my response to his long post here where he posted the same message.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/index.php/topic,2138.0.html

Matthew

[dontgivein]

Saying that John L MacDougall may be offended is very funny given that John L MacDougall and his subordinates that he trained send 7000 extortion letters per year (according to their CEO). This is 21000 extortion attempts in the past 3 years alone! These letters are written to accuse others of criminal acts without looking into facts. Some bullied people pay thousands of dollars per image. How many people has he offended? How many stay-at-home-moms he stole sleep from? The words I chose were very decent considering this totally inhumane and unethical way of doing business.

This is neither nice nor professional. And the funniest thing is, that he and the Masterfile Corporation will insist that it is all legal. Nope, it is not legal. This is a major case of massive extortion. Masterfile knows that but hopes to get away with it because there has not been a specific law written against it. Our responsibility is to report this to the media and our governments in every possible way to criminalize their actions and bring them to justice.

One more thing, This is not personal. I don't care what the name is behind the "Poster Boy" of the "Demand/Extortion Letter". It happens to be John MacDougall, therefore he is being exposed. The company executives are even more guilty because they approve, encourage, and get filthy rich from it.

There are many nice people here that don't like to see others being called monsters etc.. Well.. John has just contacted you to pay up thousands of dollars for some image that you thought was ok to use. If you don't pay, he will continue blackmailing you into paying up under a threat that you will be sued for $150000. Don't panic! This of course is not what the reality is. You must read other posts to educate yourself. You tell me what you call such individual. Candy man? a professional, nice man? LOL?

That's right, he is about to nicely and professionally take your hard earned money via a legal loophole that their CEO, or his lawyer discovered a few years ago. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! DONT JUST SIT AND BE SCARED. MOST OF ALL DONT SEND THEM ANY MONEY! This only allows them to pay their employees to send you multiple letters and pay for their lawyers to sue you and make John and the Masterfile CEO rich.

Having them file a lawsuit to attack this website or its members will only encourage many here to come forward and speak up. The judge will look at the reasons behind the public outrage and will criminalize their business. It might actually be a good thing! The justice will eventually prevail. It always does, and those that abuse it always pay for it dearly.

Oscar having contact information to thousands of victims, is actually very well positioned to file a class lawsuit against all the copyright trolls, especially Masterfile. The attorney who will do that, will make Ta lot of money. It is only a matter of time. A tiny amendment to the copyright law will trigger a gold rush for defense attorneys suing them for all the money they extorted from the public and some more. Therefore you, the victim, must make the utmost effort to notify the media and your governments to propose changes to the current copyright laws. TAKE ACTION NOW! Do something good for the society. Make a difference!

Matthew and Oscar, Thank you for this website and thank you for not bending for those bullies.

In my native country Italy there are laws that prevent this type of abuse. In the United States it is only a matter of time.

Unless Masterfile provokes me, I will not post anymore because this no longer concerns me and I seem to cause a trouble for the creators of this forum. I hope that others will follow up and do something about Masterfile and their friends.

[Oscar Michelen]

Well stated Matthew, this forum provides a lot of info on this subject for people who have received these claims and we need to try and keep it at the high level its has sustained for more than 3 years now!

[Nemen Night]

There is another one:

Ken MacDonald
Copyright Compliance Officer

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58637854/Image-License-Demand


He is extorting 4000 for a small meaningless image.

[Nemen Night]

Steve PIGeon, Masterfile CEO makes all the money from it. Does anyone think of something else when they look at his last name or is it just me?

[xsubmariner]

One of the letters I received was signed:

Kristen Sams
Copyright Compliance Officer
Masterfile Corporation
3 Concorde Gate, 4th Floor
Toronto, ON  M3C 3N7

[SoylentGreen]

Kristen Sams

http://www.yatedo.com/s/companyname%3A(Masterfile)



Another forum participant said that Ms Sams was party to a phony DMCA complaint which took down his site.
I wonder how she would hold up in court if the web site owner litigated?

S.G.