A contributor from the Association for Consulting Expertise advises a reader: What do you when your digital content turns out not to be yours?
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Q: I downloaded an image for my blog from a site offering it for free, only to learn that the site had stolen it. I immediately removed the image, but the lawyer’s letter notifying me of the infringement demanded that I pay a significant amount of money. What do I do?
ACE Advises: Something similar happened to me. It was particularly distressing because the blog page with the image received fewer than 50 clicks in a five-year period (some of them mine) and the demand arrived when my business was at a low ebb due to COVID-19.
We settled for less than 10% of the demand, but agreed not to name the parties, the amount of the settlement, or identify the image. I can, however, tell you this:
- The worst thing you can do is leave the image up. Take it down immediately, and research later.
- If you were tricked into believing that your use of the image was authorized, you are an innocent infringer.
- Under copyright law, a copyright holder can seek statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000, even from an innocent infringer. A court can lower the award to as low as $200. The statutory damages for an intentional infringer are much higher.
Copyright enforcement organizations crawl the internet looking for stolen images and then pursue the people who posted them.
If one of these organizations finds an unlicensed image on your website, the organization’s attorney may send you a demand letter like the one I received.
Some of these organizations play hardball. If you perform a Google search on the words “copyright troll” you will learn more than you want to know about their tactics and business model.
The image I used is still available on other pirate sites — for free if you believe it.
For more on this topic, see “Pirated Images: Protecting Your Digital Content, Part II” at consultexpertise.com/blog/11017840.
Priscilla Hansen-Mahoney is founder of Blazing Trails Coaching, a business management consulting firm in South Portland, and is ACE’s immediate past president. She can be reached at priscilla@blazingtrailscoaching.com.