Copyright Violation. Any Solicitors suggest where we can get help?

Aubrey_Thicket

Hi all


My Brother in Law runs a small building business. It's not a big business, just him and a young apprentice labourer. A couple of years ago they were approached by a local guy who offered to build a website for them for £500. Indeed, the local guy built a brilliant website for him and he paid the £500. Now, the other day he received a letter from a Solicitors saying that one of the images on his site is copyrighted and owned by someone else. The solicitors now demand £1,000 within 7 days for breach of copyright. To prove their case they have sent copies of his site, his images, the owner of the site details. Everything! It appears that the solicitors are right. My Brother in Law is a good man and is distraught. He is also angry at himself for not questioning the images on the site, but being a Builder he simply has no idea of technology. He is not trying to hide from his responsibilities and was really sad and was going to agree to pay the 'damages'. I just happened to drop this matter into a conversation whilst I was out having a meal with friends at weekend when one of our friends (a lady who works in the legal department of a hospital trust) said "Hang on. I'm not well up on this sort of thing but I'm sure they have to serve a take down warning first. It doesn't sound right. Get it checked before you pay". Having no knowledge of how or where to check this out he is stuck. My Brother in Law now understands that you cannot just go using other peoples work and if it turns out he has to pay he will with no qualms. At the end of the day he admits he wouldn't like somebody to steal his tools to use them to make money.


The only reason I am posting here is just to see if anybody knows of a forum or a place where my Brother in Law can check all this out before he has to pay.

glentoran99

It definitely doesn't sound right, is this a legit solicitor letter? And they cant just demand money, would need to be some sort of legal process, Have the also included proof that these images were copyrighted?


https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p05_copyright_infringement


It is normal to simply request the withdrawal of all infringing work as the first course of action, if however you believe that you are entitled to financial remuneration, such as damages or royalties, then contact a solicitor immediately.

wealdroam

Legal Beagles forum may be able to help.

agrinnall

At the very least don't pay anything just on the basis of a solicitor's letter, wait until legal action is started - which I doubt if it will be, particularly if the image has been removed.

steampowered

I would remove the image from the website.

I would then write back to the solicitors to explain that (1) the image was provided by a third party, (2) he does not admit copyright infringement, (3) he does not see how a claim for £1,000 could be justified, but (4) he is willing to take down the image from his website as a gesture of good will.

Some companies do routinely write this sort of letter as part of their intellectual property strategy. Very often they do not have any real basis for claiming £1,000 and do not expect anyone to actually pay that amount. They might simply use a request for £1,000 as a way of making the recipient take the letter seriously rather than just binning it.

A simple response saying that he will take down the image is probably enough to make them go away. Just be careful not to admit copyright infringement; if they want to take it further they need to prove their case.

I don't agree with waiting until legal action is started. If legal action is started he would ultimately have to end up paying the court costs (although to be honest it is very unlikely anyone would bother suing over minor copyright infringement).

You could try CAG as an additional source of help, there are a lot of threads on there by people who have received similar letters in the past.

fleshandbone

Do not pay anything, just take the image down.
Who's copyright is the solicitor acting on?

shaun_from_Africa

After having a quick look at the relevant legislation (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), I would think that provided you BIL had no knowledge of the image was copyrighted to another person and they have now removed it from the website, they should be okay.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/23

23. Secondary infringement: possessing or dealing with infringing copy.
.
The copyright in a work is infringed by a person who, without the licence of the copyright owner—

(a) possesses in the course of a business,
(b) sells or lets for hire, or offers or exposes for sale or hire,
(c) in the course of a business exhibits in public or distributes, or
(d) distributes otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,

an article which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe is, an infringing copy of the work.

PasturesNew

He was sold the image, he should remove it and refer them to the web developer who was the one who "stole" the image.

Aubrey_Thicket

Thanks for the great advice everybody.


Not only has he removed the image, he has literally taken his whole website off line because he is scared that there may be other image infringements. The guy who built the site has long since gone away. It was one of those conversations down the Pub..."I can sort XYZ out for you". B.I.L Took the web builder guy at his word because the guy told him "You register and pay for the domain. You own it. You sort the site hosting out. I just build the site for you and you don't pay me a penny until the site is uploaded and finished". That is what happened. My B.I.L was very happy with the site and the site has been live for a couple of years with no problem. My B.I.L just texted me (he's at work today) that the letter is from a Solicitors in Lancashire and it says 'We write to advise you that we are instructed by XXXXX in relation to his intellectual property matters. It has come to our client's attention that your website has used one of our client's images without a licence and, as such, has infringed our clients copyright under section 16(2) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1998.


The damages that our client seeks from you is £999.89 which is the licence fee that would be agreed by a willing buyer and a willing seller. The cost of the licence fee has been calculated using Fotoquote software and corroborated with the NUJ guide and Getty images.


By the way, the image is literally of the front of a house. Nothing more.


Is this any help?


Thanks again all

unholyangel

Aubrey_Thicket wrote: »

Thanks for the great advice everybody.


Not only has he removed the image, he has literally taken his whole website off line because he is scared that there may be other image infringements. The guy who built the site has long since gone away. It was one of those conversations down the Pub..."I can sort XYZ out for you". B.I.L Took the web builder guy at his word because the guy told him "You register and pay for the domain. You own it. You sort the site hosting out. I just build the site for you and you don't pay me a penny until the site is uploaded and finished". That is what happened. My B.I.L was very happy with the site and the site has been live for a couple of years with no problem. My B.I.L just texted me (he's at work today) that the letter is from a Solicitors in Lancashire and it says 'We write to advise you that we are instructed by XXXXX in relation to his intellectual property matters. It has come to our client's attention that your website has used one of our client's images without a licence and, as such, has infringed our clients copyright under section 16(2) of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1998.


The damages that our client seeks from you is £999.89 which is the licence fee that would be agreed by a willing buyer and a willing seller. The cost of the licence fee has been calculated using Fotoquote software and corroborated with the NUJ guide and Getty images.


By the way, the image is literally of the front of a house. Nothing more.


Is this any help?


Thanks again all

Have you tried searching for the person who's claiming you infringed their copyright?

Just asking as there are people who literally make a living from this. They upload images in the hopes people will inadvertently use them so they can then try and extort money from them.

fleshandbone

Firstly the sum they have come up with is absolute rubbish, for one image and if it is a stock image you are looking at a max of $30.

Secondly did your BIL get an LBA before this letter?