Recently I got a visit from a copyright troll and a strange email exchange took place. It taught me a valuable lesson and brought a call to action. For me it was the first time, but these visits are to be expected for small bloggers like me.
It all started with a somewhat threatening email in which was claimed that I infringed on intellectual property. That is, the use of an unlicensed image on this site. The email was from a company that specializes on representing rights owners of IP. Their customer claimed to be the owner of said image. If I would like to pay a large sum of money via their portal. ASAP.
Obviously I removed the image, to be on the safe side. After some investigation I found the image on the stock photo provider iStock (Getty Images). Indeed, it was an image with copyright. How it got on my website, I do not remember, probably a placeholder that I forgot to replace. Maybe I bought a licence in the past, but probably I lost it. In any case, it was only 9 EURO. Far less than the damages (“fine”) I should have to pay to the troll.
The strange thing is, the IP owner on the iStock platform was different than the customer of the copyright troll. So the next step was to ask the troll for proof of ownership, which to date I did not receive. For me it became straight forward, I did not need to pay the high amount. Also, I bought the 9 EURO license, on which there was no time limit. Just to cover my future bases.
The copyright troll under the bridge
It is almost like that fairy-tale troll under the bridge that demands tribute from every user of the bridge. Even though the troll does not own the bridge. The real owner and builder of the bridge, usually a municipality, is unaware of the scam. The troll hopes that with enough intimidation, he will get his extortion.
Nevertheless, this little incident taught me a lesson. I discovered stories of other bloggers who got these kind emails, even though they had valid licenses from stock photo providers. The lesson is; using licensed images isn’t a protection against future litigation, it is a liability. For a small hobby blogger this kind of exchange with a copyright troll is too time consuming. It also is unpleasant and stressful.
Which brings me to a call to action. The following I have done:
- Check all images on my website.
- Remove all stock photo’s from the website. Even if they are free or have a paid license.
- Only use images that I own, that are either created by me or via a POD account that I use.
- Only use AI images that are generated by my prompts, so that I claim ownership.
The sad thing is that this kind of trolling is turning bloggers from stock photo platforms to AI. AI is controversial, but the use case of generating your own images for website is really attractive and necessary. Small bloggers cannot afford these headaches with trolls. Having full ownership of your website images will give you peace of mind.
DISCLAIMER
On the internet there are a lot of similar stories where people go in full detail. I refrain from mentioning names of people and businesses, for legal reasons. Any similarity with persons or organizations is entirely coincidental. This saga is not quite yet concluded and I may have to add an update. Therefor this disclaimer.