Good plan. I’ll be more careful in the future, nonetheless.
Trudging through the spambox, I too have been sent one of these such emails from a company called Pixsy. Again operating out of Germany, but demanding payment of $485 CAD via PayPal to a US account in Kansas! Firefox flags the payment link as potentially harmful.
Same company operating under multiple names perhaps? Copytrack and Pixsy sound like they are best friends!
The email arrived with no attachments and addresses me as owner of Realmac Software LTD!
So I am guessing it is a free RapidWeaver theme someone was using from me. Pixsy saw the website ‘generator’ meta tag as RapidWeaver and syphoned-up the Realmac business details. But then mistakenly followed the theme designer link back to me and used my name and work email address as the point of contact?
The website quoted in the email is dead - it looks like a shortened URL was used. No information as to what image has been flagged or any other details. I am not even going to bother to reply. It was in the spambox, after all. I have nothing to act upon.
Let me just start by saying that I am no legal expert, but the whole thing reeks of scam:
- First and foremost, the muddled contact details, business ownership, names etc. The unmistakable work of a bot or hacker.
- If you suspect copyright infringement, you contact the website owner and hosting company first; with actual proof of infringement and the full contact details of the copyright holder. None of this ‘acting on behalf of’ false pretence malarkey.
- You keep the tone polite and civil. You never make-up fictitious names and start threatening legal action in the first instance.
- Any paperwork needs to be dated, signed in person and invoices require a complete, transparent breakdown of costs. Normally posted to a physical address, recorded delivery.
- Even if an accidental copyright infringement has been made, a legal entity would want to see evidence of mediation before it reaches them. Such actions could include simply removing the offending image or taking the webpage down. Courts are busy places and would prefer to keep minor childish ‘tittle-tattle’ playground mentality away from their doors.
- History has shown that the chances of these cases getting to court are low, if there was no intentional copyright infringement involved. With so many billions of webpages online, there are always going to be occasional copyright mistakes and misinterpretations of rules etc.
- If the image was originally given free, creative commons, etc, the owner can’t so easily change their mind on licensing and ask for it all back. Again this is not going to look so favourable in the eyes of someone with more legal authority.
My concern is that there does appear to be more of these copyright infringement harassment emails going around since the likes of Unsplash.com and Pexels.com have grown in popularity. I will refrain drawing a conclusion at this point in time. However I did hear of another RapidWeaver user suffering similar problems around January / February time, as a consequence of Unsplash images.
This makes me suspecious to believe that these photo websites are purposefully being baited by have-a-go legal eagles who are uploading dodgy material and then preying on unsuspecting users with threatening emails and ransoms. There is certainly a pattern emerging here.
I have done some more research. Again I am no legal expert, but consensus on forums like extortionletterinfo.com is that these are convincing scams. But past victims have been left alone when they’ve ignored the emails and payment demands. So I’m perfectly happy for now with an IP block and stricter email filtering.
If I receive a court summons in the post alleging I have to take responsibility for copyright infringements on behalf of Realmac Software LTD and all RapidWeaver users worldwide, then I’ll be sure to share the details of my hearing date and invite you all along!
On a more serious note, I am changing my policy and beginning to remove stock imagery from a few of my RW addons that used them. A few themes and stacks I inherited from past developers were using some free images from Pexels and Unspash. Then there is zero risk of myself or any of my customers getting harassed by these get-rich-quick scammers.
I would advise other RapidWeaver users steer clear of supposedly ‘free’ stock image websites and produce their own content or source it from more reputable places where feasible. In reflection, I don’t think inclusion of Unsplash in RapidWeaver 8 has proven to be such a good idea.
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I’m sure you’re right (as usual!) @willwood. It sounds like a scam and I suspect the other ones are too.
I hope Rapidweaver keeps unsplash feature. I would never take an email demanding money seriously. Any demand for money would need to arrive via certified mail that required my signature. Anybody can send out free emails… Have spend $10 to send me a letter and it gets my attention.
I learned from this thread to keep good records of where I get my stock pictures from. I would never take a picture I randomly found on the Internet.
I am very grateful… I will keep good records on my stock pictures used on my site.
I wouldn’t necessarily take it seriously if it were sent by snailmail. My wife received a scam letter posted from Hong Kong! It was a very obvious fake, too.
Copyright trolling is becoming an industry of its own with the advancement of automated software to scan the web for possible victims.
These thugs are just looking for easy money by using scare tactics threatening to sue for the maximum amount the law permits if the victim doesn’t settle now for a much smaller amount.
Trolls rely on the fact that even a small percentage of marks will often settle for an amount typically $400 - $3000 range in order to avoid a possible larger settlement.
I’m not going to give legal advice but if you haven’t done anything wrong then:
Please don’t feed the trolls!
It just encourages this behavior.
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Thank you very much for this info, It is extremely important to me
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