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Alrighties, I promised I'd post it. Just didn't have the time yesterday. 
So anyways, this all starts a few months ago. I did a big design for a rather nice client (OMG A NICE CLIENT NO WAY), and it was massively successful. His site took off in a BIG way. One of client's buddies at that point became hugely jealous of his success, and started attacking client and his website. And then dragged ME into it by messaging me some rather nasty stuff.
Their logic was that, since I did the design that gave my client's site a huge boost....its all MY fault he's successful. They'd come to me in the past for an estimate, and turned it down because they were too cheap. They instead bought one of the cheap premades, and slapped that on up there. A premade is nice, but it makes the site look like others, and it ends up causing more problems in the long run if they don't get a custom design, and soon. In this industry, a custom design is pretty much required if you want to succeed.
So yep, I got attacked too, and immediately regretted it. You see, I'm on the board of a rather high profile group for the industry.
On board, as in, I run it.
So, with this, I gave him a warning to cut it out. He ignored it. I promptly kicked him out of the group, and again warned him to stop. Of course....he continued. Well, he had two other staff members for his site in the group....I bounced both of them straight on out. It finally sunk in at that point how big of a mistake he'd made, and he started throwing a tantrum, demanding I reinstate them immediately. I pretty much laughed and said no, you were warned, you didn't stop. His mind at this point must've broke, because he tried to threaten me again, and got nastier.
Well, I also own a rather large website that aggregates reviews for each website. Its a rather big thing to have a banner from my site that shows their ranking/star rating.
I banned them immediately. And then informed them of my decision, and that they were now banned from any, and all, of my websites and related businesses.
Dead silence, for once. Followed by another tantrum, and a another veiled threat that I made a bad decision. I ignored it, as they'd pretty much shot themselves in both feet with their behavior. Nothing to worry about.
Fast forward to this week.
Out of nowhere, on Facebook, Jealous Dude messages me, telling me I'd made a very bad decision in siding with client, and rants for a bit. I'm confused as to why this all is being said...so I go and head on over to his site to see if there's any clues.
And boy howdy, were there. Right on his homepage, I see some images that are disturbingly familiar. As in, my work. I email him a cease and desist order, telling him to remove said images.
He does a couple hours later, ranting. And then within an hour, they go back up, slightly edited in Photoshop.
Another C&D, stating that those ALSO need removed, and that he is not to use any of my images, or artwork, in any of his creations, or in making new images.
Images go down, not a word from him this time.
I assume things are handled, and go about my business for the next couple of days....up until I get a message from someone asking if I made a graphic for someone's website. I don't recognize the name, so I go to it to see what's up.
Lo and behold, its another one of my images, having been edited in Photoshop. I contact the owner and request its removal. He apologizes, and says "I'm sorry, I bought a site design from <Jealous Dude> and he put them there."
....say what.
Upon further research, I find out that Jealous Dude decided to get 'revenge' on me by going into site design. And that it would 'sweeten the revenge' to use my own images for his designs.
Oh no he didn't.
Another email to Jealous Dude, this time its all serious face. I explain that this is his final warning, any more violations, and I will drag him to court and pursue statutory damages for repeated, intentional copyright violations.
He replies back that since he edited the images in Photoshop, and therefore "generated entirely new images", he was free and clear.
My response? "Then I'll see you in court."
He immediately removed the images five minutes later, and replied that he won't be using them again, and that its all my fault, I started this in the first place.
Yep, I guess I learned a hard lesson there, I need to make less awesome designs and make sure they aren't so good.
So anyways, this all starts a few months ago. I did a big design for a rather nice client (OMG A NICE CLIENT NO WAY), and it was massively successful. His site took off in a BIG way. One of client's buddies at that point became hugely jealous of his success, and started attacking client and his website. And then dragged ME into it by messaging me some rather nasty stuff.
Their logic was that, since I did the design that gave my client's site a huge boost....its all MY fault he's successful. They'd come to me in the past for an estimate, and turned it down because they were too cheap. They instead bought one of the cheap premades, and slapped that on up there. A premade is nice, but it makes the site look like others, and it ends up causing more problems in the long run if they don't get a custom design, and soon. In this industry, a custom design is pretty much required if you want to succeed.
So yep, I got attacked too, and immediately regretted it. You see, I'm on the board of a rather high profile group for the industry.
On board, as in, I run it.
So, with this, I gave him a warning to cut it out. He ignored it. I promptly kicked him out of the group, and again warned him to stop. Of course....he continued. Well, he had two other staff members for his site in the group....I bounced both of them straight on out. It finally sunk in at that point how big of a mistake he'd made, and he started throwing a tantrum, demanding I reinstate them immediately. I pretty much laughed and said no, you were warned, you didn't stop. His mind at this point must've broke, because he tried to threaten me again, and got nastier.
Well, I also own a rather large website that aggregates reviews for each website. Its a rather big thing to have a banner from my site that shows their ranking/star rating.
I banned them immediately. And then informed them of my decision, and that they were now banned from any, and all, of my websites and related businesses.
Dead silence, for once. Followed by another tantrum, and a another veiled threat that I made a bad decision. I ignored it, as they'd pretty much shot themselves in both feet with their behavior. Nothing to worry about.
Fast forward to this week.
Out of nowhere, on Facebook, Jealous Dude messages me, telling me I'd made a very bad decision in siding with client, and rants for a bit. I'm confused as to why this all is being said...so I go and head on over to his site to see if there's any clues.
And boy howdy, were there. Right on his homepage, I see some images that are disturbingly familiar. As in, my work. I email him a cease and desist order, telling him to remove said images.
He does a couple hours later, ranting. And then within an hour, they go back up, slightly edited in Photoshop.
Another C&D, stating that those ALSO need removed, and that he is not to use any of my images, or artwork, in any of his creations, or in making new images.
Images go down, not a word from him this time.
I assume things are handled, and go about my business for the next couple of days....up until I get a message from someone asking if I made a graphic for someone's website. I don't recognize the name, so I go to it to see what's up.
Lo and behold, its another one of my images, having been edited in Photoshop. I contact the owner and request its removal. He apologizes, and says "I'm sorry, I bought a site design from <Jealous Dude> and he put them there."
....say what.
Upon further research, I find out that Jealous Dude decided to get 'revenge' on me by going into site design. And that it would 'sweeten the revenge' to use my own images for his designs.
Oh no he didn't.
Another email to Jealous Dude, this time its all serious face. I explain that this is his final warning, any more violations, and I will drag him to court and pursue statutory damages for repeated, intentional copyright violations.
He replies back that since he edited the images in Photoshop, and therefore "generated entirely new images", he was free and clear.
My response? "Then I'll see you in court."
He immediately removed the images five minutes later, and replied that he won't be using them again, and that its all my fault, I started this in the first place.
Yep, I guess I learned a hard lesson there, I need to make less awesome designs and make sure they aren't so good.
Just make sure you pay them decently!
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