Forum

Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Hi, today i've received a letter from a Company ( their attorneys) that i've listed an item that they own copyright

they want damages of 2400 euro cuz i've listed one of their items. I've never sold this item, it was on my ebay account for like 2 days then i've removed it
The ebay account doesnt exist anymore

They put the ebay URL on the letter but doesnt show anything just 404 not found (on ebay)

2400 its inappropriate for 3 images in my opinion.
Ideas? trying to talk with this company but they dont respond

ignore them,nothing they can do

once a friend of mine has some problem dealing with the US immigration and naturalisation personnel until she hired a lawyer to represent her,these guys shaped up right away.

There is now a shortage of accountants,but never a shortage of lawyers.
Law school is expensive,I dont know why so many people want to become lawyer,graduating out of law school with a 6 figures student loan.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

I dont know, its europe not usa
Im talking with a lawyer

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

in this case you should usually reply that you do not sell on ebay and know nothing about this

under no circumstances should you admit that you are the actual seller because if they file a suit against you at court they will have to show previous correspondence and the court would demand proof from them that it is really you who was selling the item

at the same time you document your reply in case they conceal this information from court so that you could provide it later to court that you informed the plaintiff about this

since it is a civil case there is no way for them to prove that you are seller because anyone could be registered there with your details , most likely they do not even know who the ebay account is registered to but have the information from packets that you ship or from the address published on ebay in case it is a business account

this is usually done by sending a REGISTERED LETTER with TRACKING to the lawyers so that you have proof of receipt , not by EMAIL or PHONE

I did this a couple of times and the result was always the same , they did not take any further action as it would be very expensive for them since they do not have police powers to investigate anything , in the worst case scenario it may get your ebay account suspended though so keep it in mind

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

yes but the bank attached is mine and with dac 7 they have everything. at the end i prefer to pay those 2400 that say lies on a court

I just want to discuss about those 2400 euro for a stupid listing that i never sold i just mistaken upload. They put ebay link but doesnt work.. they charge me 300 euro x8 photos. Copyrighted

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

ok my laywer said to me shut the **** up lol

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

"they" do not have anything , they are not the state. they will not allow you to just pay 2400 and forget about it but they always ask to sign a paper where you swear not to violate again under threat of a fine and from that point on they will be constantly observing you to look for violations

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

They i mean the government if they sue me with some civil cause so they can undestand its me after long time

by the way the link they provide on the letter by their attorneys doesnt work.. because the account doesnt exist anymore, i even dont know what the **** this product is. I didnt make an euro on this product. charging me 2,4k for 8 photos

so imho they are wasting their time and i doubt they will sue me with some civil cause for 8 ****ing useless photos of their ****ty brand

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

This scam has been discussed many times and the advice is always the same. NEVER reply, anyone who says you should is, quite frankly, an idiot.

The letter to you was not initiated by the Copyright holder. Low Grade legal firms take it upon themselves to persuade companies to allow them to be their IP police...and all free of charge too.

They subsequently fire out these letters without the knowledge of the IP holder. The demand for money is not made with their consent, it is merely a nice little earner for the lawyer if they get a sucker to respond.

And finally, if ever you were stupid enough to play along and did find yourself in court (which even the lawyers wouldn't want/allow to happen) then they would be expected under UK and EU law, and the US I suspect, to attend and quantify the loss the the copyright holder. Not happening.

They act outside the law, even sending counterfeit bogus court date papers, a judge would not only throw it out but probably tear into them - and that's why they will never let it get to court.

To repeat, the ONLY way they make any money is if you voluntarily hand it over. It ain't going to court.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

I searched the owner of the copyright and its different. So your point make sense.
(They attached a Bank IBAN + name for the 2400 payment on the letter)

I'm talking with another attorney expert in copyright just to undestand better and have more say, but the matter is already clear

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Fuk them, what are they going to do. ANother useless scare tactic most of these useless companies do nowadays.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

they need to prove somehow that the account was mine, that i used their Photos for sale items, that i've done damage to their company and so on

1) The URL of the product that they put on the letter doesnt exist
2) The product wasnt sold, i didnt even remember that i've listed it onestly, was on my store for like 3 days
No evidence, and if they want to find if its me they need to sue me with some computer expertise from the government.. I suppose it cost like 10k at least lol. Find my ip, that was a proxy btw
And then the damage i did to them is so little.. not existing

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

ALl those companies do is use scare tactics. You are not big fish, nor would they waste money and time going after small people.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Have you checked that they are not a scam and preying on your fears?

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

the name of the lawyer exist, firm of lawyers have no reviews.. Any hint on how I can tell it's a scam?

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

you make it all too complicated , if there was a way to prove it was you it would be sufficient

because the owner of copyright to images may easily demand such a compensation without further proof but if you deny it is your ebay account it is going to become a problem because this would not allow a court to make a judgement against you unless the plaintiff can provide proof it was you

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

yes but to prove its me they need to investigate, its not just my word or not. They need to sue me and find some proofs its me.. thats require more money that they could take from me with those 8 copyrightedphotos

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Precisely hah

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

At some point, perhaps a year ago, they also wrote to me that they were also selling MK cards and I received an email to the email address I have on eBay and asked to cancel the item and send $10,320 for trademark use payments (this amount was taken from sales totals I had of the product in the year)--
analyzing that:
1- MK would never write to my email.
2.- If it were done, it would be done by a legally constituted law firm, probably from the United States.
3.- Before the two previous things happen, eBay would lower my item for 3 days, 7 days, 10 days, and then I would close my account.

My conclusion is that they are scammers who are waiting for someone to pay.=}-

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

they sent me priority letter not email, email have no meaning

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Ok, my friend look at this way...

If they brought this to court how do you expect them to prove anything when as you suggested the URL doesn't exist anymore, and you never made profit on it?

I would not respond, and they will not continue to pursue you. 2,000 euros is nothing for what it costs to actually go to court, and do all these things. It also makes no sense to waste time over something that is a nonexistent issue. It is possible they bookmark your account and make sure you don't do this again in the future, however thats purely speculation.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

1. You are not business company who sell wholesale.
2. Ebay is marketplace where you can sell unwanted items, used items.
3. If you legaly get this item why you can not resell it ?
4. Send them back message - print out your email with IBAN put in your ass, and shoot three times it out !!! ��

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

In Germany, we call it "Abmahnung," which I believe is correctly translated as "cease and desist." Lawyers send out mass payment demands for missing rights to images or mistakes in listings, for example, no base price indication or incorrect terms and conditions. And all of this is legal, and we have to pay it. A value in dispute is determined, for example, €100,000, and we have to pay 5% of that. These are, so to speak, the sheriffs of the internet. But since you are from Italy, it wouldn't care about

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Bad advice. They've already been told how this rouse works, simply stop using the images and ignore them.

This isn't a pi$$ing competition, OP just needs to know that if they walk away from this then nothing will happen - guaranteed.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Correct, that's why, as I said, it will NEVER get to court.

Lets not forget that if the company was that concerned, or the lawyer was in any way competent, they'd have registered with the eBay VeRo programme and taken you down that way.

But they didn't because as I said before, this isn't about brand protection it's about some scalper lawyer looking to make a quick buck out of naive sellers.

I had one many moons ago and the comical lengths they went to to scare me was ridiculous. They even sent dummy court papers with 'place and date to be advised' written on them, all very funny.

I can only repeat what I said before, do not reply and it will all go away and you can smugly relax knowing the scum lawyer has wasted time and money on a failed scam.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

''Lets not forget that if the company was that concerned, or the lawyer was in any way competent, they'd have registered with the eBay VeRo programme and taken you down that way.''

I'm in a similar situation, some pi$$y little micro company sending me letters, even though they NEVER went through Vero to take down the item . I took it down myself in a timely manner to nip the drama in the bud for now and have NEVER once replied to them. The fact they never went through Vero, in my case and the OPs case, raises a red flag

'' They even sent dummy court papers '' Pretty sure that would make any case not only invalid, but is against the law, from my research. If you really wanted you to, could get a good Lawyer/Solicitor and take it further, and really ruin their day

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Right on - dont reply to these shenanigans

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

there must always be a plan B in case it does not go away

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Free Lawyer advise for all, and verifies what most people have been saying on here. Ignore, don't correspond.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

So what do you suggest is a valid 'plan B' for a scam such as this?

In what world do you even imagine this going any further than pathetic scam fishing-trip letters?

Stop with the scaremongering, indeed, assuming you know how this scam works, I suspect you know there is no need for a 'plan B' so why mention it?

If you're adamant that a 'plan B' is necessary then you clearly don't know how these shysters operate.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

there are companies that take people to court , this here may or may not be a scam but especially in the EU there are many companies taking online sellers to court that is why it is always important to keep the plausible denial option open if the matter should go further

in the best case sellers should plan for it in advance by not easily providing their personal details to everyone and anyone , this is possible for smaller sellers and only difficult to do for big ones and corporations

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

Why would a company take someone to court when these listings were already taken down? You would then need cooperation from eBay to show the history of listings. It's not going to happen.

All for using a picture?

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

there is no way.. its a listing created and deleted at december, never sold it. in one of my account that is suspended now and death like 8 months ago.

i believe that it had like 0 views, 2400 euro for a no sense listing...

filing a civil copyright case in Europe can cost around €3,000 plus lawyer fees. However, copyright cases in Europe can be lengthy, often lasting 3-4 years or even longer, and cross-border disputes can further complicate the process.And they need to prove its me..

the letter is just to scare me, we ll see in the future if they sue me! But have no ****ing sense...

my etsy and ebay stores are doing good and this letter gave me motivation to hustle more more and more. :)

Nintendo sued some guys because they created an emulator for Switch and they did a damage of bilion of DOLLARS. New Zelda was on emulator before the native console. 1 milion of copies wasted
And those developers payed less that a milion in compensation. The damage was HUGE. (They even had a Patreon that made 30k a month).

Copyright are not that easy, and the compensation is based upon damage that you do.

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

you do not need cooperation from ebay , at least in the EU anyone who owns copyright to an image can demand compensation , it would be sufficient to prove that the person in question used the image , for example on ebay

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

These people are just scamming to look for us.
You don't have to respond to these people, they look for who sells products that are VeRo on eBay and try to make some money.
block the user and go on your way

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

civil cause in europe are 2-5 years long, at least in Italy and so in Gemany.

The guy that wrote the letter is a retarded cuz they put a 5% business fee
1500+ euro that i need to pay plus 2400 euro to the owner of the copyright.

But those 1500 euro as @spk said its a German law, im italian it doesnt count to me.

Sue me.. i'll pay the whole trial 3-4k lawyers and so on, im not giving you 3000 euro straight away

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

you are wrong about germany and most likely the same is in italy , in germany there is a special procedure called "einstweilige verfuegung" , this is when a court decides within a few days based on evidence provided and you receive an order to stop doing something under threat of large fines and a bill to pay the court and laywers , if you disagree you can object but this would immediately lead to expensive court hearings

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

you are wrong about germany and even italy

what you are talking about is a temporary block that governments implement when there is a huge damage to the copyright holder company, it has nothing to do with an item put on sale 8 months ago that doesnt exist anymore

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

So your Plan B is My Plan A - do nothing!

It does beg the question what your plan A is??? :pound:

FYI, if you new anything about this matter you would know it is a scam, there is no 'may or may not'. ;)

Re: Letter from a company (Copyright infrigment)
 

It has been mentioned by both myself and OP that for copyright infringement claims in the UK and EU the loss or damage has to be quantified. Which part of that do you not understand?