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« on: August 21, 2011, 01:41:50 AM »
@Nemen-
Oooo, name calling! Hit a nerve did I? You know, in a judged debate the person who loses emotional control loses the debate.
Anyway, since you are such the expert in farming, perhaps you could enlighten us as to the difference between a disc, a spring tooth, a harrow, a roller and a moldboard plow. My guess is you don't know the difference between a swather and a combine, either.
I find odd that you'd call yourself a pro based on the equipment you claim to own. Last I checked a professional is one who earns a living with his/her gear.
But another question begs to be answered, if you are so good with your 5DMkII, what the hell were you doing with a stock image on your site? That’s really not adding up. You should be able to get the image you needed yourself, after all you’ve got many “tele and wide angle lenses”.
My average settlement rate? Better than 90% Why? Because in almost every case I've had a registered copyright.
Considering you have no obvious basis in which to judge my intelligence versus the intelligence of any given CEO, I'd like to know how you came to the conclusion that they are 100 times smarter than I.
I'll give you a little background, though. I am an award winning journalist. I've received local, state, national and international awards for both my photography and my writing. I've received recognition for editorial writing, crime reporting and religion reporting and breaking news, among others. On the photography side, I've won for breaking news, sports photography and feature photography. In addition to newspapers around the country, my work has been featured in magazines, scholarly journals and advertising, as well as on sites such as NPR and CNN.
On the more artistic side of things, my work has appeared in galleries and artists have used some of my work as the basis for their paintings, most recently in Australia. I shoot a very limited number of weddings per year, about four on average, and get paid well for them. My signed limited edition prints sell just fine, thank you. I also donate limited edition prints to groups and charities I support, they often bring in over $1,000 at their auctions.
In addition donate my time by mentoring high school journalism and photography students and giving talks to grade school kids, along with shooting portraits of 4-H and FFA kids and their animals at our local fair each year for a nominal feel. Basically I charge the fair enough to cover costs.
So, when was the last time you did anything charitable?
As I stated before, you seem to have a problem reading, I never stated my photography business failed, another business I purchased failed. Not because of my lack of photography skills, but because of the economy taking a dive and a dishonest employee making of with thousands of dollars. That ex-employee is now behind bars.
I think your reading problem might have had something to do with your little infringement issue. I think you might have missed some text stating “Image may be subject or copyright” or “All rights reserved”.
Up until about four months ago, I dealt with an average of two infringements per year, hardly conducive as a business model. In the past five months alone, I’ve had to deal with four, including one that involves 14 vicarious infringements of the same image. A company took it, and then allowed it to be used on 14 other sites. Excuse me if I think that’s a bit over the top. $20,000 doesn’t even come close to actual damages.
In your world, people wouldn’t even be able to brag a bit about their successes.
As for stumbling across this site, I was researching infringements, when I found it. Being curious, I wanted to see why demand letters were being called extortion letters.
To an extent, I think the stock photo companies may be going over the top a bit, but I understand why they are heavy handed. People do not respond to “nicey nice” letters. Let’s face it, fear motivates people.
From the sound of your anger and hatred for anyone defending their work, I’d venture a guess that you aren’t in the least bit apologetic about infringing, but are angry that you got caught.
You wanted to use something that belonged to someone else that you didn’t pay to use in order to make a profit for yourself.
And you call me greedy?
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