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Is This Legit? (And YIKES… freaks me out to see this!!!)
I just found an old contact form submission (from June) in my spam folder. I am not sure this is legitimate or not – I won’t click the link in the email because I don’t know whether it’s legitimate or not.
<begin email>
My name is Lindsay.
Your website or a website that your organization hosts is violating the copyright protected images owned by me personally.
Check out this doc with the links to my images you used at http://www.shiningself.com and my earlier publications to obtain the proof of my copyrights.
Download it now and check this out for yourself:
I do think that you willfully infringed my rights under 17 USC Section 101 et seq. and could possibly be liable for statutory damages of up to $110,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) of the Digital millennium copyright act (DMCA) therein.
This message is official notification. I demand the elimination of the infringing materials described above. Please take note as a company, the Dmca demands you, to eliminate or deactivate access to the copyrighted materials upon receipt of this particular notification letter. In case you do not stop the utilization of the previously mentioned copyrighted materials a legal action will likely be commenced against you.
I have a strong self-belief that utilization of the copyrighted materials described above as presumably infringing is not authorized by the copyright proprietor, its agent, or the law.
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this message is accurate and that I am the legal copyright proprietor or am certified to act on behalf of the proprietor of an exclusive right that is allegedly violated.
Best regards,
Lindsay Anderson06/15/2021
<end email>
All images I use, I purchase from Deposit Photos… could I still be under copyright infringement even if I purchase images from them????
I’m freaking out now!!!
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6 Replies
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Adding comment… So I Just did a Google search for section 504(c)(2) of the digital millennium copyright act (dmca) and saw some articles come up about fake copyright infringement emails. So I think this is fake!
Here’s one of those articles. https://www.techlicious.com/blog/fake-copyright-infringement-warnings-used-to-spread-ransomware/
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Hey Tish,
I’m pretty sure this is fake. She’s requiring you to go to some creepy looking link to verify her ownership instead of posting her copyright or trademark file numbers or copies of her paperwork which is required under this law to show proof of ownership.
Plus if you purchased the photos, that would be proof you didn’t intentionally violate her copyright or trademark. And, it would be on the photo company to prove that they had the right to sell them.
P.S. not giving legal advice, just information.
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I agree, its bunk.
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99% sure that’s a scam and a big scare tactic. Someone out there has told people to scare others into paying up for images, or click phishing links, or even just to take things down, all with fancy sounding legal references. That may in fact be made up – or they copied the real bits but the application here is off. They make it sound just close enough to something legal, and they reference a real statute on copyright, but the rest is mumbo-jumbo.
Ignore it.
Not a lawyer, not legal advice. ;-)
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Thank you everyone. I did some digging after I had posted that and that email sent to me was one of many scam emails people were talking about. Crazy!
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I too, would have been freaked out @tishialee
So glad we have this great forum with amazing biz people who can keep us updated and on track.
