Great work, Dee. I couldn't agree more about VKT's negligence with his images. He may be guilty of abandoning his copyright or sleeping on his right to enforce his copyright, especially for the ridiculous sums he is asking. As you say, the amounts he claims are based on the client's estimated ability to pay, not on any kind of a fair usage scale.
Even while going through a case the man is busy registering images with the US Copyright Office. Just last June 4, VKT registered an image titled "Big Island Coastline - B-22" which he claims is from 2003. What's interesting about this image is that it does NOT appear to be a baitpaper image at all. In fact, there is a very short list of images that match it on a Google images search.
http://www.hawaiipictures.com/picture_detail/99999-411/I bet this image is going to be used for a claim soon. There is actually a short list of websites that appear to be infringing on this image.
Why else would VKT suddenly run to the copyright office and register a 9-year-old image? With this image, the defendants won't have the baitpaper defense because it's not out there as bait.
Here's the registration info for that image:
Type of Work: Visual Material
Registration Number / Date: VA0001821752 / 2012-06-04
Application Title: Big Island Coastline - B-22.
Title: Big Island Coastline - B-22.
Description: Electronic file (eService)
Copyright Claimant: Vincent Khoury Tylor, 1962- . Address: P.O. Box 510164, Kealia, HI, 96751, United States.
Date of Creation: 2003
Date of Publication: 2003-08-31
Nation of First Publication: United States
Authorship on Application: Vincent Khoury Tylor, 1962- ; Domicile: United States; Citizenship: United States. Authorship: photograph(s)
Alternative Title on Application: 1 Photograph Published on Aug. 31, 2003
Rights and Permissions: Vincent Khoury Tylor, P.O. Box 510164, Kealia, HI, 96751, United States, (808) 823-1263,
[email protected]Names: Tylor, Vincent Khoury, 1962-
Dee, I wanted to mention that I also approached a webmaster from one of the numerous baitpaper sites by asking them if they were aware that the images they were offering as free wallpaper were copyright infringements. The webmaster did not know since a "guest blogger" put up the images as a post on their blog. The webmaster was suspicious of my approach; he thought I was selling something or scamming. I told him I just wanted to warn him that he was violating someone's copyright and that he was also seeding for the copyright owners (HAN/VKT), who go around making extortionate claims for using those images.
I guess he eventually believed me. First he took the images down, then later he took the whole post down. I have to assume they did not realize what was going on and thought the post was "fair use". At least in this case I don't believe they were intentionally seeding the images, but I did not communicate with the person who
actually posted the images on that blog.