Oscar to ask Attorney Gen. of NY to investigate Masterfile. EVIDENCE AVAILABLE!

[Nemen Night]

Oscar is a great man. I am asking him for help (in a brutal way:). I apologize in advance for what is about to come below.

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, barratry(see SoylentGreen post) and other crimes. 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 to EXHIBIT A, B, C, D.....Z 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.

SoylentGreen presented an excellent cause for class action lawsuit against Masterfile. - Barratry!
"Several jurisdictions in the US have declared barratry (in the sense of a frivolous or harassing litigant) to be a crime as part of their tort reform efforts" - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barratry

Must read SoylentGreen's post:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/index.php/topic,2196.0.html

Other Examples:

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.shtml

Because 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, barratry, 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, barratry, 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.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

Dude, you seem to have this all figured out and you think this whole class action case is a slam dunk win. I have a solution for you:

Hire Oscar.

Write a big check to cover his expenses while he tries to file a class action suit against companies that claim they are protecting their IP. They will obviously fight the case with everything they have and it could take hundreds of hours. But you are certain it is a home run. YOU can be the big hero and I am sure you can work out an agreement where you see the lions share of the legal fee portion of the settlement.

The solution for what you want is simple. Just put your money where your mouth is.

P.S. You keep throwing around THOUSANDS of letters like that is a fact. Please point me to where this is documented. Based on my observations on this site over the last year, my guess is that Oscar has produced somewhere in the low hundreds of letters, if that. Forty of sixty grand over three or more years is not my idea of some kind of get rich scheme.

[Nemen Night]

First, I am not your "Dude"

Second, I am talking about Oscar sending a letter to the Attorney General asking to investigate Masterfile. Filing a class lawsuit is something that can be done later.

Sending a letter to the Attorney General to investigate Masterfile is one of the initial steps that can be taken and it does not involve any costs except for the time to type the letter.

If Masterfile were investigated, it would create media attention and many law firms would be watching and analyzing ways to profit from filing a class lawsuit against the large stock image companies.

Yes. In several places of this website it is written that Oscar "has 500 letters on his desk" Oscar has the evidence to support a class action lawsuit once it is possible. For now it is important change the legal environment in favor of the innocent infringers. The cheapest and simplest path is to get the Attorney General order to investigate the business practices of Masterfile (which is the ugliest of them all and the best one to begin with.)

I am working to limit ugly practice of these companies and myself have written numerous complaint letters to the Attorney Generals. Nobody says that it is easy, but there are some easy and cheap steps that can be taken to make it easier later.

Please do not attempt to minimize or criticize my efforts. You cried, so Getty forgave you. You can move on. Unfortunately there are thousands of others that are still being pursued. My efforts are to help everyone, not just myself. If you have nothing constructive to add, please keep quiet and watch others carry the fight. I am not expecting you to do anything, you clearly have no clue and motivation to do anything other than get yourself off the hook.

We need to motivate people to fight and influence changes to the presently outdated copyright laws.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

Dear Mr. Nemen Night,

First my sincere apology for calling you "dude."  No offense was meant by it. Perhaps I have lived on the West coast too long.

We need to motivate people to fight and influence changes to the presently outdated copyright laws.

I could not agree more with this quote. That is WHY I am still here. I believe there needs to be a change in the way these companies do business AND in the copyright law. If you look at my previous posts you will see this is true.

However I have some problems with the manner in which you have conducted yourself on this board:

• Your earliest advice was to recommend to everyone to "ignore. ignore, ignore" these demand letters. I think that is patently bad advice. If you ignore enough attempts at contact, you become perceived as an easy target for a default judgment. Sooner or later Getty will run out of suckers that just roll over and then they will have to start bringing action. My bet is that they will go after easy default judgments first.

• Accusing this board and Oscar of somehow being in on it and not being motivated to change things is not okay with me. I don't want to look for the thread right now, but in another thread you essentially accused Oscar of sitting on his hands and generating response letters with no intent to help fight the extortion. This is patently untrue. He has donated hours of time to coach people on what their possible course of action might be. Just because he isn't doing what you want on the timetable you want it, does not make it okay for you to state your opinion as fact and identify it as some conspiracy.

• You have an abrasive personality. At a time when people should be working together to find solutions, you go out of your way to alienate. Example: Soylent Green is every bit as passionate about this issue as we are. But he engages the photographers that visit this board in a healthy debate without calling them "greedy" or "crooks." Another example: I didn't go "crying" to Getty. (I also didn't foolishly 'ignore, ignore, ignore'.) I dealt with their complaint head on, made my position abundantly clear and related the facts. My God, even this thread title "Oscar to ask Attorney Gen. of NY to investigate Masterfile..." That is awfully presumptions. Would it not be appropriate to say "Oscar PLEASE ask Attorney Gen. of NY to investigate Masterfile..."?

Side note: I'm also not going to get into how 500 cases on one's desk in total does not equal thousands of extortion letter-specific cases.

Maybe I don't have as much 'skin in the game' as I once did. (Although, who knows, Getty may be able to dig up a rights managed image that was inadvertently used in a comp in the mid-90's and I will be back in the fire.) The fact is I have contributed money to this board. I also have a standing offer to contribute to the legal fund of the first "innocent infringer" case that is brought against someone on this board. I'll pledge up to $300 because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is.

Look Mr. Nemen Night, I don't want to waste time fighting with you. I know having a large company threaten legal action is very stressful. But that action does not mean the rest of the world is out to get you. You, the people behind this board, the photographers who visit it, the stock agencies and myself all have different points of view.

Please do not attempt to minimize or criticize my efforts.

I am not minimizing your efforts. If you've already sent a letter to the NY Attorney General I applaud that effort. I think you should share a draft of it and post the AG address. But I will criticize your efforts when I think you are being rude, counter-productive or offering bad advice. I hope you'll understand.

[Rainbow Queen]

I actually agree with Nemen Night. If Oscar wrote to the AG, it would make an impact. Sending a letter costs no money.

There are certain ways to go about certain things even if they seem difficult at first. If your opponent is too strong, you first weaken him, if he is still too strong, you weaken him further. Once the opponent is weak enough and bleeding, you take him down. Before the opponent realizes what is happening, there is no return. It is possible to weaken your opponent without him being able to defend itself and prevent your attack. It is possible to attack without the opponent seeing the attacker and being able to stop it. This is done by anonymous complaints to various places that are in position to hurt the attacker. It is the case where "The pen is mightier than a sword".

In the case of the Stock Image industry, you attack the weaknesses of either Getty or Masterfile. Some of the Stock image companies have been already attacked and some have lost the fight. Recent court cases lost. This weakens the strength of the entire industry as people find faults in their ways of doing business and securing the intellectual property.

The largest ones are Getty and Masterfile. Masterfile being a Canadian company and having business model poorly diversified is a better candidate to attack first. You weaken the company strength in multiple ways. Several important blows to their business are already happening. 1) They are destroying their own reputation by their letters with crazy demands. 2) Letter recipients don't sit quiet, they talk about this in various discussion forums on the internet including this site. They are exchanging ideas, potential striking points as legal flaws in their acts. Many lawyers are looking at this too.  (3) Many people are probably writing their complaint letters to the Attorney General. The longer it continues, the more (1), (2) and (3) will grow.

Even a small illegal act done by Masterfile, or Getty gives a reason for the Attorney General to begin investigating the company. Such investigation would give a huge initial blow to those companies. This would make your opponent bleed. Any sanctions imposed on those companies and their lawyers would bring media coverage. This would make your opponent bleed more.

The legal defense lawyers and many class action attorneys would be looking at it intensely as a potential opportunity. Bleeding Masterfile would not be able to fend itself from all the sharks smelling their blood. Lawsuits would be pouring. Perhaps class lawsuits. You will be hearing commercials on TV: "If you have received a settlement demand letter from companies such as: Masterfile, Getty Images, Alaska Images, PhotoAttorney etc.. you may be eligible for compensation. Please call 1-800-JUSTICE".

It seems to me that the harm that these companies do namely Getty, Masterfile and others is far greater than the importance to enforce their copyright or protect some photographer hobby business. There are many small businesses targeted. Instead of spending their money and time on growing their business and provide employment, they are busy fighting with Stock Image companies. This is actually ridiculous. We are in a recession and in a depression for many. This does not help definitely. I think writing to President Obama and Nancy Pelosi would help. USA needs small business and entrepreneurs. The last think the country needs now is some disease in the form of ridiculous lawsuit threats by some overzealous lawyers and picture companies especially foreign. When will our government finally wake up? If they want to increase tax revenues, they must have laws in the books to protect their businesses. These issues just give another reason for small companies to incorporate offshore.

The way I think it will all eventually play out is both Masterfile and Getty will get sanctioned or sued. What they do now will not continue much longer and it is inevitable that something will happen to limit what they do. It is very possible that nearly all of Masterfile earnings come from the demand letters. (This is one of the reasons that they are an excellent target to begin with) Once they get sanctioned, they may no longer be able to fund their company operations. Getty will survive because their business is diversified, but their future infringement letters will contain cease and desist notice without payment demands, or the payment demands will reflect the true market value for their images and not some crazy $30K demands. If someone does not comply with taking the image off their website within a few days, then they will be allowed to file a lawsuit. I think we will see that happen in the next 1-2 years. Maybe sooner.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Getty and the likes will continue to send demand letters until the laws in the US are changed to make them send a cease and desist first, until that happens the letters will continue rest assured

[Oscar Michelen]

OK, just a few points before I address the main topic.  (1) I do not make a significant amount of money from this site at all, in fact I consider it a loss leader. I reduce my regular $450 per hour fee to try and give some form of response for people who receive this letter, it introduces them to my firm, and it fells good to help people out(2)If I was getting 1,000 of letters per month (at $195 each) I would be doing nothing else but monitoring this site constantly not just popping in every now and again usually if you notice on weekends and days off, so as to not to take time away from my busy regular practice; Matt Chan makes nothing off the few $195 clients per month that come to me through this site so what's his angle?  (3)I call it Extortion Letter because it is in my and Matt Chan's opinion bullying and extortive to demand more than the alleged wrong is worth knowing that the inflated amount is still not enough for most people to fight over instead of just sending in a check. The digital image companies have not done anything to take it down because the First Amendment protects me from being sued for my expressions of my opinion. I also say it is "Legalized extortion" which is why no attorney general I have reached out to in the beginning of this issue three years ago saw fit to get involved. In Idaho, I believe, the Attorney General there heavily fined one of the digital image companies only because they had globally settled with a website template company yet were still making monetary demands from end users who used that template company; in essence they were trying to collect twice for the same infringement; (4) Every so often (certainly two months don't go by) a class action lawyer or firm contacts me expressing interest in taking this on.  I provide them with all the info, another hour discussion on the phone, redacted copies of the letters, etc. And then hear nothing.  This happened as recently as a few weeks ago.  No response yet from the  last lawyer.  I am not allergic to making money or handling controversial cases or taking on the big guys. My track record proves that I have done all of those in the past and currently continue to do so. If there was valid way to bring a class action for this conduct, I would have done so years ago or one of these firms, who do nothing but bring consumer class actions. Barratry requires the litigant to have no claim - these companies do have a right to protect these images. It is not harassment to try and collect for an infringement; it is their methods and demand amounts that are just overbearing and  disturbing.  But as always I am open to suggestions so please tell me what would the basis be for a class action; what is the illegal conduct they are engaging in that gives rise to a claim?  I will be the first to sign on to bring the case myself!   

[SoylentGreen]

I heartily agree with Oscar's assertions:

"Barratry requires the litigant to have no claim - these companies do have a right to protect these images.  It is not harassment to try and collect for an infringement; it is their methods and demand amounts that are just overbearing and disturbing."

However, there are many times when these companies don't have the paperwork in order to show that they have a ligitimate claim (one that would hold up in court).
Look at Imageline/Riddick.  He authored the images, registered them, the whole bit.  But, the court found his "copyrights" to be invalid nontheless.

Therefore, it's my opinion there are times when these companies have no valid claim, like Riddick.
If there's no infringement (and they know it), then's it's just harassment, and well... barratry.

To say that 'barratry' doesn't occur, would be to assume that the companies are correct all of the time, never make mistakes, and are 100 percent honest.
I for one, (and I'm sure many others) find that argument rather hard to swallow.

We can also argue about whether Riddick is different from Righthaven and how they're different from Getty.
But, they're all governed by the same laws when it comes to the issues discussed here, and they're all trying to do the same thing even if the tactics vary slightly.

S.G.