Gets No Respect I Tell Ya. No Respect.
This is either the most ignorant small business owner in the world, or the most ballsy. You decide.
Submitted by: Waldemar K | Original Source: Dan’s Data
This is either the most ignorant small business owner in the world, or the most ballsy. You decide.
Submitted by: Waldemar K | Original Source: Dan’s Data
@crazyemails
wow… I feel sorry for the lawyer, if they actually have one that is.
That is wrong on so many levels…
I would direct him to icanhaz.com/legalresponse =P
He’d be lucky to not get counter-sued for using their resources without permission (including bandwidth).
WOW. I’m in marketing, so I find this one particularly hilarious. Oh to be a fly on the wall when this guy gets a response.
He needs to talk to his lawyer to learn about infringement. What a dumbass!
I say put the pictures back up … then a few weeks later change the image that has that file name. Oh the possibilities!
WIN
I know friends that will do this when images are stolen via ‘hotlinking’. And the images he changes them too are quite interesting.
Cracked.com has an article about this, websites steal their articles all the time usually with all the photos too (linked directly to Cracked), they decided to change all of the stolen photos to some very funny stuff and write an article about it.
Here’s a link:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/this-is-why-you-dont-steal-from-cracked/
I love how outraged he sounds.
Woooooow…talk about copyright infringement. I hope that guy gets his just desserts, because karma is a bitch.
You mean that Google Images is not open-source?
Original source, with more correspondence
This reminds me of the time my neighbour called me to let me know that he had been stealing my wi-fi signal (for some reason my husband’s laptop won’t pick it up if it’s secured, and we more or less live in the middle of nowhere) but he couldn’t connect to it any more and he wanted me to help him fix it. I told him I wasn’t helping him with anything. Moron.
I am going to sue you for moving your copyrighted images that I was using without your permission! LOL…What a nimrod.
Most of the time I can go along with keeping people anonymous, but OMG I really want to see his website. Don’t make me call my lawyer…
That’s freakin’ hilarious! I’m voting for ignorant, rather than ballsy = )
BAHAAHAHHAHAHAHHAA
What an idiot. I would have loved to see the photographer’s response to this, because I’m sure it was a ‘dude, you’re an idiot and don’t even deserve to own a business.’
Copyright infringement is annoying as all get out. That’s what stock photography is for.
Even if the receiver of that e-mail doesn’t care someone used his copyrighted images, he should sue the sender just to screw him for sending that e-mail. He won’t even need a lawyer to win that case XD
and he runs a buisness how?
That mail is nice evidence in case he wants to sue him
“You stopped me from stealing from you! I’m going to contact my lawyer!”
All right, dumbass. Why don’t you just hop back in the salad bar with the other vegetables?
This just DEMANDS for the good old switcheroo…
I would welcome his lawsuit. Alas, his lawyer will probably set him straight before it gets that far.
Having taken a number of pre-law courses I can tell you the “honest business man” sure isn’t. Unauthorized use of proprietary material is theft. As if the “honest business man” can’t pay for all of his own content, he does what most morons do: blames his victim.
Oh please, please email him back explaining in a very funny way that he can find the new images at (such and such.com) and make fun pictures saying stuff like “Please don’t try to steal my images” and then send us his new email complaining how he is going to sue now. Please, it would make my week.
He should replace the images with the old file locations with porn.
Oh man, please do call your lawyer. And tape it. I want to hear him ream you.
Wow. I cannot believe this. Simply crazy!
I remember seeing this a few years back – there actually was an exchange of emails after this and it was far more amusing. If I find it, I’ll let you know.
This guy sounds like he sells dvds in china. If it’s on the internet, it must be free to take and sell!
http://digg.com/programming/I_stole_your_bandwidth_images_and_now_I_believe_that_I_can_sue_you link it points to is dead, but as you see this was posted on Digg almost exactly 3 years ago. Read through those comments if you like.
Thinking about it, it’s probably a worse fate to end up on here where we can all mock him and laugh, than to get sued.
Brilliance.. pure brilliance! If only he knew the world of pain he could be in if the site owner took action!
His email alone would screw him over let alone the images!
This is one lawsuit that their attorney should not take on contingency.
This is so stupid, it sounds fake.
Absurdity.
Welcome to the next bussiness doomed to fail. I wonder if they list “dumbass” as a catagory on the unemployment benefits appliacation?
folks who own their own businesses cannot apply for unemployment.
sad but true
Susan…I may wind up owing you a apology…
What an idiot. The only thing his lawyer will do (if he goes to one, and that isn’t just an empty “threat”) will be to charge him his minimum rate to tell him he hasn’t got a case and will be lucky if he’s not sued himself.
I’m voting the guy was a completely ignorant nimrod. People like him exist for the rest of our amusement >:)
Hmm, I’d go w/ most ignorant. Just goes to show how people are litigation happy and live in a dreamworld where things should be handed to them.
You can see this letter, and Dan’s response to it, here:
http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2008/02/18/this-legal-threat-im-less-worried-about/
Dan’s response is very amusing.
they should put the images back and then after he has seen that they’re working change all the images to porn…unless they were originally porn, then change them to LOLcats…
I hate when stuff like this happens since it’s hard to actually get readers on a small blog when your work is stolen. At least if you plan to use an image, use your own space, don’t just embed from another site. Though, luckily, Wordpress was nice enough to block some of the bots and users that were doing that stuff for a couple of my friends and me.
Actually if someone is stealing your images there is not much you can do. A lawyer will pretty much tell you that you just have to deal with it.
One of those unenforceable laws.
stoopid
His next email will probably look a little something like this:
Hello,
I must say, I’m quite upset. I have been using the services of your company lawyer (while he is on the clock of course) for a long time and now when I need him most he is gone. I have a company website which uses another company’s website images to run my business. The other website has moved their images and they won’t tell me where they put them. I don’t know if you fired your lawyer, sent him on vacation or a business trip or simply let him leave the company but I need his services to sue the website’s owner for lawfully protecting their copy rights.
My concern is that if you do not get your lawyer back in town soon, I will have to contact my neighbor’s contract killer to get justice myself.
Why would you do such a thing? I’m an honest businessman just trying to use other companies’ ressources. Please get your lawyer back now. I don’t think you want me to call my neighbor’s contract killer about this.
Sincerely,
An honest businessman
You get my respect.
I had a similar encounter.
In 1999, after developing a site for a small local business, which included a couple of custom-made original montage images, I was checking the search engine rankings one day and was very surprised to see a second link to one of the images.
The image was hotlinked from a web site of a college in the midwest.
It didn’t take much to find the site and the second image. Get this — it was being used as part of a class on web design and web ethics. And not as a “don’t do this” instance. The professor just liked the image.
When I emailed him to tell him to stop, he gave me some long drawn-out blah blah about images on the web being available to everyone and I must have gotten the image somewhere myself. I told him yes, I got it from my camera and my Photoshop, and would be glad to take him to court where I would not only produce the original photos and PSD files from which the montage was made, I would also produce the people who were in the photos (employees).
He responded snarkily – basically a “you’re no fun” and “you know nothing about the Internet” letter. What a maroon.
I changed the file name on the image every week for a month. Eventually he got the message.
Oh you should have never even emailed him. Just changed the image to an animated gif saying “hotlinking to someone else’s image is an example of bad ethics, and also just plain stupid.” And then goatse.
This guy’s lucky he didn’t get goatse’d for his hotlinking.
I would ask the dude how much money he made off of my images, so I can have a “clear” idea of how much I made him lose…of course only to use this info against him in a copyright case! BAM!
I’m having the same problem but reversed I took an image for to advertise my company. Unfortuniately the image owner wants me to pay him and I tell no lies: £100 per day for it going years back. I’m freaking over it but I think I’m totally screwed. I know we all do it but it’s looking like the end is here for borrowing images. Of any one knows how to get me out of my nightmare please email me as I’m currently sweating over it.
The guy is an ass. I apologised and took it off line immediately. But he says it’s not as simple as that and to expect an invoice.
Would love help!
£100 p/d is just extortion, but I hope you learned your lesson:
DON’T HOTLINK.
Rehost it instead.
Chris, I don’t think you need to worry as long as you handle the situation well. If you’re not able to do so on your own you need to get a smart friend who you can share all the details with, or else get a lawyer.
Above all don’t send the guy anything he can use against you. Perhaps something along these lines would be appropriate, preferably in the form of a certified letter, but definitely on paper (and keep a copy for yourself)
“I have complied with your request to discontinue use of your copyrighted work without delay. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I am willing to discuss purchasing a license for use of the copyrighted material, if you are willing to license it for use.”
Laws are probably different in your country, but where I live sending a letter like that would go a long way for getting a case thrown out, especially if he ignores your letter. It shows that you are reasonably doing everything you can to make it right.
Tell this guy you are going to shoot his ass if he insists in harassing you.
And that he is the one that must pay, you.
Sigh… I had no idea that so many idiots were stealing images like this, but I guess it’s more rampant than I thought.
This reminds me of my mom’s webmaster. My mom owns a small business and entrusts all of her technology-related stuff to this one very small-time “web marketer.” Well the web marketer/webmaster did the infamous Google image search and used images on my mom’s website. My mother just got a cease & desist letter from an attorney along with a $3,000 bill, and she still won’t fire this rookie retard of a webmaster.
yeaaaah, I do some basic webdesign for my mom here and there, but i only ever use specifically marked free wallpaper and graphics, and try to use my own if i can.
you gotta give the guy credit for having the balls though..
Ahahahaha! He haz teh ballz0rz.
lol let him contact his lawyer we all know he can’t use those images
The nerve of this guy!!
An honest business man wouldn’t be using someone else’s artwork to begin with. It amazes how boldly stupid some people can be.
He’s (all) nutz (and no brain)!
From a FLXer colleague.
Just reading that made me angry. My god, how stupid.
All right man!
Way to go…..
Honestly, that “honest business man” needs a kick to his *ss
Lol,
I’d have written back to him explaining in detail how I was about to sue his into the ground for copyright breach etc etc.
The only way he can use other image sis if he gives credit to the original creater, so thats copyright theft there aswell.
The best part (or worst, I guess) is that this guy is not only using someone else’s images, he’s obviously hotlinking to them. Lolwhut? If I were the recipient of this email, I would replace all of the old images with a polite note explaining why hotlinking is bad… and some hardcore porn?
LOL Someone doesn’t understand the Internet.
Your website probably doesn’t get any respect because of your lack of understanding of the English language.
Agent57, that is an excellent idea!
That’s amazingly stupid
The owner needs to replace these images with lets say something a bit more R18+, that’ll make the honest business man happy won’t it? Hotlink…..oooooo that hotlinking haha
Laterz!
“Hello? Yes, I stole your car some time ago and have been using it to get to work. Yesterday, I got in to start it and it was out of gas! I DEMAND you fill it up again immediatly! How can I make a living if I can’t get to work! Don’t make me pretend to have an attorney!!”
That guy is 10 kinds of stupid, geez.
Wow!!!!
He’s really crazy-stupid-dumb guy!
dude. chris. you totally deserved that. c’mon. copyright laws exist for a reason you douche. i’d do the same damn thing to you.
Dear god. He pulled the photos off of photo bucket. I honest to god know who wrote this letter. He sells doors and windows and is surprised that his business is failing. Frankly i’m not.
cool dude
dude, at least have the sense to steal properly… download those stolen images and house them on your own server… sheesh!
Hotlinkers crack me up. True story: Once I had a website that was fairly well known in its circle, and some of the images I used came from the game the site was about, while others I had initially pulled from other sites (with permission) and hosted on my server, and eventually I cobbled together some images of my own making. New sites sprang up, and one started just showing a bunch of my images without permission and completely hotlinked. I told the author that I did not give permission for the images I made myself to be used, and as for the others, he was free to copy them and use them on his own server; he removed my homemade images and left the others, still hotlinked. The author of that site didn’t add width and height info to the image tags. So I copied my files to new names and changed the images on my site to link to those, then I replaced the originals with blown-up versions 10x as big, with my site’s mascot in front with arms folded and a disapproving expression. This completely threw his site out of whack. The angry email I got in response, accusing me of wrecking his website, was priceless. He sent it on Christmas day as well, so it ended up being a late-day present of sorts.
Really great content, I learnt a lot from reading this.
Ever notice how people who threaten to sue never follow through with it? Like they think people will say, “Oh no, not a lawyer! I better do what this guy says.”