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Apparently, I court disastrous lawsuits every once in a while. (see what I did there?)
I also waited to post this until the complete all clear was given.
Big Note: Company names substituted for darned good reason. I don't normally do this, so you know I mean business, lol.
So anyways, last month, a client who I'd just completed a new design for messages me. He asks if I remember a design I'd done for him previously to that one....which was about four years ago at this point. I said, well, vaguely, but I do remember it.
"Ok, because I just got a legal letter from Boop Images saying I owe them $150,000 because you used a copyrighted image on it without permission."
/cue spittake
I always, always check my image sources, ever since a fateful day about six years ago. A guy I knew on a forum was hit with a suit for $1.6 million for some Boop images he'd used without permission. (Protip: using images you find off Google Search is a HORRIBLE idea). That was MORE than enough to teach me to be careful.
"I'm not paying this fine, you are. I'll sue you for this."
So, with my client screaming at me like crazy, I pull up the design in question and scan the images I used. All of them I distinctly remember using from purchases or from a free stock image site. I try to go pull up my stock folder, and to my dismay, and horrible luck, turns out I don't have it anymore, nor any of the images from that time. A quick check confirms it was during the time I had one of my hard drive failures. Oh boy.
To pacify client in the meantime, I explain to him my image policy, and that I need a bit to try and dig up where I'd gotten that image from. I explain it probably was one of several large stock stores, but that I needed to confirm. I ask that he remains calm, and to just wait for a few.
Does he? Nope!
Not three minutes later, Client then tells me he called up Boop Images, who claims there is no way I could've purchased/downloaded it at ALL, and that they'd be willing to settle for a "slightly, slightly lower sum". Oooh, that sounds shady.
I immediately tell client to cut it out, and to calm down, I'm trying to find out what's going on, and remember my source for the image. But now, my research has taken a different turn.
You see, the second they offered him to settle for a lower amount, within MINUTES of his call, it brought up red flags. I then searched for similar issues, and BAM. Turns out, this is a common tactic for Boop Images. They'll find websites that might have used an image of theirs at one point, and then will hit them with a letter demanding massive sums of money. Whether or not the website is actually guilty....they don't care. Its all intimidation. If they can get them to pay an amount, ANY AMOUNT, it's theirs fair and square. They basically run around bullying sites into paying them extortion fees, for imagined copyright issues. (Which, I'll admit, there's probably some actual guilty ones out there, but they seem rather trigger happy) Secondly, if a website receives a copyright infringement notice, simply removing the image would be considered complying with the notice, and therefore...you don't have to pay the fees.
Another interesting note I found on this same issue? If a website DID actually use an image without permission, the designer is not at fault, it's considered the client's, as they are supposed to exercise due diligence in double checking all the images used on their site. Interesting, but not something I feel like using as an excuse to leave my client in the lurch for.
But, at this point, I have a lucky moment. I remember that I used to use this one free stock image website ALL the time back then, and that's where I got the image. I quickly head on over to the site...and....my heart plummets.
Turns out that two years ago, Boop Images acquired said free stock photo site. And promptly removed all the good free images, and started charging for them. HOWEVER, I got this image off them before the buyout. Shabam! I'm definitely in the free and clear now!
Client, however, is still not happy with this, and by the time I get back...is now on the phone with his lawyer. Lawyer is confused by what's going on, and I lay it all out for him. How the image was taken from a free site, which is now under Boop's control, and how the image was no longer in use anyways, and how they were trying to basically bully Client.
Lawyer laughed. He literally laughed.
And promptly told client to "Tell Boop I'm calling them on their bull****. And leave that poor woman alone, she's completely right."
My client got reaaaal quiet at that point, said a tiny "thank you..." and then went to go call Boop back. When he got back, he told us that as soon as he told the Boop Images rep all of that, she hung up on him without a single word. Lawyer again laughed, and said yep, that's because their bluff got called.
We all waited for a few weeks....but there hasn't been another single peep out of Boop.
I'm just grateful that I learned from that hard lesson all those years ago...and I hope that maybe, if any of you guys also use images on your website/blog/whatever without making sure it's okay to use it? Check. You never know. :P
** Please note that I'm not a lawyer, I just tried to do my research, do not take anything I've posted as solid gold gospel, k?
I also waited to post this until the complete all clear was given.
Big Note: Company names substituted for darned good reason. I don't normally do this, so you know I mean business, lol.
So anyways, last month, a client who I'd just completed a new design for messages me. He asks if I remember a design I'd done for him previously to that one....which was about four years ago at this point. I said, well, vaguely, but I do remember it.
"Ok, because I just got a legal letter from Boop Images saying I owe them $150,000 because you used a copyrighted image on it without permission."
/cue spittake
I always, always check my image sources, ever since a fateful day about six years ago. A guy I knew on a forum was hit with a suit for $1.6 million for some Boop images he'd used without permission. (Protip: using images you find off Google Search is a HORRIBLE idea). That was MORE than enough to teach me to be careful.
"I'm not paying this fine, you are. I'll sue you for this."
So, with my client screaming at me like crazy, I pull up the design in question and scan the images I used. All of them I distinctly remember using from purchases or from a free stock image site. I try to go pull up my stock folder, and to my dismay, and horrible luck, turns out I don't have it anymore, nor any of the images from that time. A quick check confirms it was during the time I had one of my hard drive failures. Oh boy.
To pacify client in the meantime, I explain to him my image policy, and that I need a bit to try and dig up where I'd gotten that image from. I explain it probably was one of several large stock stores, but that I needed to confirm. I ask that he remains calm, and to just wait for a few.
Does he? Nope!
Not three minutes later, Client then tells me he called up Boop Images, who claims there is no way I could've purchased/downloaded it at ALL, and that they'd be willing to settle for a "slightly, slightly lower sum". Oooh, that sounds shady.
I immediately tell client to cut it out, and to calm down, I'm trying to find out what's going on, and remember my source for the image. But now, my research has taken a different turn.
You see, the second they offered him to settle for a lower amount, within MINUTES of his call, it brought up red flags. I then searched for similar issues, and BAM. Turns out, this is a common tactic for Boop Images. They'll find websites that might have used an image of theirs at one point, and then will hit them with a letter demanding massive sums of money. Whether or not the website is actually guilty....they don't care. Its all intimidation. If they can get them to pay an amount, ANY AMOUNT, it's theirs fair and square. They basically run around bullying sites into paying them extortion fees, for imagined copyright issues. (Which, I'll admit, there's probably some actual guilty ones out there, but they seem rather trigger happy) Secondly, if a website receives a copyright infringement notice, simply removing the image would be considered complying with the notice, and therefore...you don't have to pay the fees.
Another interesting note I found on this same issue? If a website DID actually use an image without permission, the designer is not at fault, it's considered the client's, as they are supposed to exercise due diligence in double checking all the images used on their site. Interesting, but not something I feel like using as an excuse to leave my client in the lurch for.
But, at this point, I have a lucky moment. I remember that I used to use this one free stock image website ALL the time back then, and that's where I got the image. I quickly head on over to the site...and....my heart plummets.
Turns out that two years ago, Boop Images acquired said free stock photo site. And promptly removed all the good free images, and started charging for them. HOWEVER, I got this image off them before the buyout. Shabam! I'm definitely in the free and clear now!
Client, however, is still not happy with this, and by the time I get back...is now on the phone with his lawyer. Lawyer is confused by what's going on, and I lay it all out for him. How the image was taken from a free site, which is now under Boop's control, and how the image was no longer in use anyways, and how they were trying to basically bully Client.
Lawyer laughed. He literally laughed.
And promptly told client to "Tell Boop I'm calling them on their bull****. And leave that poor woman alone, she's completely right."
My client got reaaaal quiet at that point, said a tiny "thank you..." and then went to go call Boop back. When he got back, he told us that as soon as he told the Boop Images rep all of that, she hung up on him without a single word. Lawyer again laughed, and said yep, that's because their bluff got called.
We all waited for a few weeks....but there hasn't been another single peep out of Boop.
I'm just grateful that I learned from that hard lesson all those years ago...and I hope that maybe, if any of you guys also use images on your website/blog/whatever without making sure it's okay to use it? Check. You never know. :P
** Please note that I'm not a lawyer, I just tried to do my research, do not take anything I've posted as solid gold gospel, k?
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