Are You At Risk of an Intellectual Property Lawsuit?

A picture may or may not be worth a thousand words

...but it can easily cost you a few thousand dollars!

Guest article by David Squires - Contractor's Online-Access

Recently one of our clients received a demand letter and invoice for over $2,000 for a picture that was found on their website that they did not own or license. The company invoicing them was called Masterfile Corporation out of Toronto Canada. If you're thinking "scam" as you read this-you couldn't be more wrong. In fact, if you do a quick search on pending intellectual property lawsuits in the USA, you will find 76 lawsuits filed by Masterfile in 16 states-and these are just the few who didn't settle and pay up.

If you think it can never happen to you-think again. Also, don't think that getting caught means you get a slap on the hand and a gentle warning. Getting caught simply means you're going to pay big. Most of the companies getting these letters weren't even responsible for the choice of pictures in their website. In fact, most of the fines were not deliberate thefts from the stock-image companies, but pictures obtained from other sources that may or may not have had license to use them. Stock image companies like Masterfile are using sophisticated image recognition software to spider the web. This software can recognize even a small piece of the images to which they have copyright.

The irony of the invoice my client received was that the picture they were being billed for was a digital image that a former employee had created in Photoshop where he had blended two pictures together. Unfortunately, he used a piece of a picture he found on the web to do it with. The company assumed that it was appropriately secured. Unfortunately, Masterfile--and the law-say it wasn't. In fact, after doing more research, the $2,000 being demanded from my client was a bargain when I read about other small businesses complaining of having to retroactively pay $40-$50K for illegal use of multiple images found in their websites. One case I followed involved the owner of a small retail business that had to pay $10,000 for two pictures on his website that his daughter's boyfriend built for him. Hopefully the young up-and-coming webmaster will be able to research the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) now that he's probably single again with more time on his hands.

If you do get caught illegally using images from these guys... picture that the hand pointing the finger at you is putting on a latex glove...

Having had to enforce our own intellectual property rights by asking contractors to remove copyrighted content they "borrowed" from the websites we provide our clients, Masterfile appears to have turned what I always saw as a thankless, but necessary, job into a gold mine. Most of the accounts I read on a forum dedicated to victims of these letters were from people that didn't even put the picture on their website, but it was provided by the guy that built it for them. One such victim actually attended a presentation in Toronto given by a "Copyright Compliance Officer" of Masterfile where the representative stated that over 85% of the stock photo industry's revenue now comes from demand letters and litigation.

To give you an idea why the images on everyone's websites are being scrutinized so closely, Getty Images & Corbis, two major players in the stock image industry, annually uncover 42,000 & 70,000 violations respectively. Each of their violations has an average fine of $1,000-$1,200. When you do the math, the 112,000 plagiarized pictures they find that may have been only worth $1-3 million in licensing fees, now bring in about $123 million in the punitive fines they demand-and their fines are fairly low when compared to companies like Masterfile.

Protecting your company in a virtual world from virtual thugs

Although I understand and agree with the need to police copyright, turning litigation into your major profit center is just wrong. Bankrupting a small business for a mistake that may not even be their fault is not my idea of a business of which to be to be proud. So, how do you protect yourself from inadvertently getting squeezed by the new virtual copyright thugs? First off, the best defense is an aggressive offense. Don't wait for Fed-Ex to deliver your own personal invitation to meet their lawyers, instead be proactive. Here are a few things you should consider today.

1. Make sure you are using a reputable web designer who you can trust. 

My company, Online-Access goes to great lengths to take its own pictures and create its own images so we can offer our clients access to safe images they can use on their site. However, if your web site designer utilizes stock-photos or professional photos in developing your site ask for and keep on hand a copy of all the licensing documents.

Don't depend on your web guy to keep the proof of license for you since he's not the one who will be getting the Fed Ex package from a "Copyright Compliance Officer" at Masterfile. More than one webmaster who gave an unbelievably low price to build a company a website has quietly disappeared when one of his clients gets a demand letter for $35K for illegal images he mistakenly thought were royalty-free.

2. Take your own pictures and use them in your website.

With digital cameras today there is no excuse not to since, if the picture doesn't look quite right, you simply keep taking more until you get a good one. Sort of like the idea that enough monkeys and typewriters would eventually result in the tome 'War and Peace'. Besides, it's not like you're going to pay additional money developing the ones you don't use.

3. Do not "borrow' pictures where you don't have permission.

If you do get permission, verify that the picture really belongs to the person giving you the OK. A lot of times, many of the borrowed pictures that get caught are pictures borrowed from other sites or brochures the producer of which had obtained a license limited to their use only. Having a license to use a picture does not constitute ownership. Whether the image may be shared depends on how the license reads.

4. In many cases, your product manufacturer will supply you with images to use. 

You are probably safe using images from their website since it would be hard to imagine a manufacturer suing their own dealer for using their material to help them sell their product. However, that being said, you probably still should make the effort to obtain permission through your distributor. If, by some stupid logic they tell you no, then follow up with the question, "What brand do you recommend I put on my website instead?" That question has good chance give you the logical 'yes' you were after with your first question.

Be careful to steer away from brochure or non-industry related marketing images on manufacturer material since many of the 'smiling people' images are likely licensed only for marketing produced by the manufacturer. A quick way to judge would be if the image doesn't have a branded piece of their product in the picture-there's a good chance it may not be theirs to let you use it. Of course, if you find any identical photos through stock sources you can obtain your own license and right to use the photo.

Finally, take the time to go through your website and make sure you know that any pictures you've added are ones you either own, have licensed or have obtained permission of the owner to use. When in doubt, ask yourself if it's worth paying a few grand to keep it. If not, deep-six it and replace it with one you do own (see #3 above).

Remember, if you do deliberately choose to use images and written content on your website or in your marketing-material that you don't own or have permission to use-it isn't as easy to get away with it as it used to be. With search engines and image tracking software, finding plagiarism on the web is no longer like you're a 'tiny needle' hiding in the proverbial 'hay stack'. It's more like you're playing 'Russian Roulette' with a fully loaded gun.

This article may be freely used and republished under condition that it is used in its unaltered entirety and all source links and author credits remain intact.

Plagiarism - It's Not Just The Service Trades

As Comanche Marketing readers know, plagiarism is a real problem in the service trades. We've got some serial plagiarists who are too lazy to perform the hard work of research and writing. They would rather steal from others. We're not alone in this regard. I found an interesting post at the real estate social media site, Active Rain that suggests real estate agents face similar issues.

After San Antonio's Matt Stigliano encountered blatant plagiarism, he commented, "I always thought it was more of a subtle problem - less of a copy word for word and more of a copy it concept for concept while rearranging a few things to make it seem like you wrote it yourself."

A number of real estate agents chimmed in...

"It doesn't seem to matter how many articles are written on plagiarism or copyright violations on AR," offered Virginia real estate agent Cindy Jones, "People just keep at it. Sad."

Lenn Harley, from the DC sububs countered, "I don't believe that the serial offenders will "get the message", as Cindy hopes. They are opportunists who knew that it was wrong to take the content in the first place and getting caught is simply going to make them defensive, not enlightened."

That's certainly been my experience. When a Service Roundtable member called out a plagiarist, he took down the plagiarized material within 30 minutes. It reappeared later with an apology for not crediting the originator. If it was a one-time instance, I might be inclined to agree, but I personally had to take down over a dozen articles the same plagiarist wrote for the Service Roundtable once alerted to the intellectual property theft. To publish a plagiarist is to risk your company. It's just not worth it.

Here are a few more comments from the real estate agents...

My stuff, is my stuff. Your stuff is your stuff. If I reference your stuff, i need to state that it is your stuff. Out the suckers, remove the suckers. Off with their heads. Opps that may be a little tooooo much, or not.

- Jay Beckingham


This does happen quite a bit. I don't believe people who do this realize how serious it is to copy/steal someone else's work.

- Dan and Amy Schuman, Cleveland


Very unprofessional. I find it hard to believe someone would copy something directly like that and call it their own. It happens, but it blows my mind that someone thinks people won't notice.

- Joseph Keech


It happens more often than you think, and it's a shame.

- Richard Weisser


Copyscape sent me an email yesterday letting me know that a local agent ripped of one of my city pages word for word. I sent her the DMCA warning and removal email.

- Jennifer K Giraldi, Atlanta


It's just wrong. I appreciate the opportunity to re-blog, but I can't imagine why one wouldn't want to post the right way and give credit where credit is due.

- Michelle Francis, Atlanta


Plagerism is so unprofessional.

- Kay Van Kampen, Springfield Missouri


Plagiarism is not an art form and is theft, plain and simple.

- Russell Lewis, Austin


In the publishing world plagiarism is taken very seriously. We can all remember where people at The New York Times and Washington Post were fired and banned for this. Publishing a story or book that is plagiarism may be a bit more extreme but consequences have to be more severe. I am astounded that someone would do this in Inman News and think that it would not be noted.

- Joe Pryor, Oklahoma


It is difficult for me to understand why someone who needs to blatantly copy other people's work would even choose to blog. Blogging = writing, plainly and simply. If you cannot write or are unwilling to write, you should take blogging out of your marketing plan.

- Claudette Millette - Massachusetts


I was so glad to see this post, as I was going to write something similar to it. I'm amazed of how many bloggers I see who just cut and paste articles and then call it their own.

- Kathy Torline-Nordstrom, Colorado Springs


Attribution takes only a moment. Defending a plagarism lawsuit will take considerably longer!!!

- Craig Rutman, Raleigh


Plagiarism seems to be more and more prevalent in blogs. Stealing someones content does not make for a good blog.

- Michael Setunsky


I can't understand why people cannot will not use their creative juices when writing, it's beyond me.

- Leolinda Bowers, Surprise Arizona


I've never understood this dishonest practice. You will be caught eventually. Is it really worth losing your credibility?? And if you're engaging in this sort of behavior, what other dishonest practices are you involved in?

- Peggy Wester


This illustrates the slippery slope of un-ethical agents.

- Jenna Dixon, Atlanta

Sadly, I cannot imagine a group of contractors reacting like the above real estate agents. When this issue's come up with contractors, most appear to yawn and shrug. Some even defend the plagiarist. Maybe if contractors had more outrage, we would have less plagiarism. We need to call these guys out and shun them when we find them.

Even Accidental Plagiarism Can Cost You

Not only can plagiarism cost your company; it can cost you, your company. That’s right; you can lose your company over plagiarism, even without malicious intent on your part.


Click for the full article at Contracting Business by Charlie Greer and Matt Michel. 

Forward this one to your mail list.  Every business owner needs to be aware of the risk from using plagiarized material.

Another Plagiarist Exposed

Angel Zapata exposed a plagiarist at his A Rage of Angel blog. Having experienced the same, I understand his feeling. I can even empathize with the fact that Zapata admired the guy's work before he discovered it wasn't really his.

Been there. Done that too.

Like most plagiarists, the guy Zapata uncovered is a repeat offender, a serial plagiarist. People who do this are fundamentally lazy, dishonest, and unimaginative. They don't suddenly become industrious, ethical, and creative. Thus, they steal again and again.

I've got to believe that intellectual property thieves eventually get found out and, at the very least, their reputations are tarnished. If they write fiction, they only hurt themselves and their publishers.

Zapata contacted the publisher, who initially defended the plagiarist. "I have known Richard for over a decade and do not believe it possible for Richard to be morally capable of such an act," wrote the publisher to Zapata. "As a person with a great respect for the law and with such a love of literacy, I do not believe this is something he could commit knowingly, if at all."

Regardless, the publisher took down the site.

A few years ago we caught someone sending plagiarized material to the Service Roundtable for us to publish. Once alerted, we took it down, noted the copyright violation, and linked to the original author's work. Anything we were in doubt about simply disappeared. Only work we were convinced was original remained. We acted fast, proactively, and notified the original writers what happened, what we did, and whether there was anything else necessary. We made sure we were covered.

I worry, however, about business owners who rely on plagiarists' work. If caught, the copyright holder will go after the business first. Remember, the business has the deeper pockets.

The business owner may try to defer to the plagiarist, but since plagiarists are dishonest by nature, don't expect them to take one for the client. Expect the plagiarst to disavow all knowledge, leaving the business owner high, dry, and under siege.

Lynn Frazier at the Writtenwyrdd blog, pondered about Zapata's discovery. Frazier asked, "Does the internet make plagiarism more common, or simply make it easier to find?"

Personally, I think it makes it both more common and easier to find. In the last year, a contractor showed me material a well-known consultant wrote. I could swear I was looking at my words. As it turned out, I was.

The consultant was quoting a marketing manual I wrote in 1995 under copyright to my employer at the time. Because it was hardcopy and not electronic, the text wasn't verbatim. The consultant couldn't cut and paste, so the work was summarized. Summarizing took less effort than retyping word-for-word.

Point after point after point was copied. Dollar amounts, when present, weren't changed. The manual included some off-the-wall ideas and honestly, some of them were pretty bad. The plagiarist copied good and bad ideas with equal vigor. If anyone looked at a comparison, there would be little doubt the original work was plagiarized.

If you used an Internet search engine and searched phrases from the plagiarist's document, you would never find the comparison. For one, the manual isn't available on the Internet in electronic form. For another, the phrasing differs slightly.

I only noticed the plagiarism because I was the original author. A select group of contractors who read the manual and saw the consultant's work might pick up on the similarities, but might not. It's been a long time since I wrote the original manual. My old employer doesn't even use the manual today (though the plagiarist apparently does).

I believe the Internet makes plagiarism easier due to the cut and paste opportunities. I think it also makes plagiarism easier to detect since exact phrases can be searched.

As a business owner, it's incumbent upon you to check the work of your employees, contract writers, and consultants from time to time. Pick unique phrases. Load them into a search engine and see what pops up. You might need to search through a number of pages and even then, you might not catch everything, but you'll stop enough to give you peace of mind.

I know. I do it regularly. I also catch enough intellectual property theft among contract writers to keep checking.

Plagiarism Plagues The Internet & The Trades

Imagine someone breaking into your company, copying every ad you've paid to have created, every management document you've authored, every direct mail letter you've penned, every form that's unique to your company, your website design, and every special nuance about your business. Then, the guy who broke into your business turns around and presents your service agreement, your advertising, and your documents to your customers... as his.

Even if you would freely share all of your operations and methods with the guy, it's unnerving to see him market and sell your programs as his work product. This is plagiarism and it's a HUGE problem today.

Plagiarism is too clinical a term. Face it. This is theft, pure and simple, and its perpetrators are crooks.

If it happened to you, there's a chance you might go nuclear. You might send the lawyers after the culprit, regardless of the costs. But what if it happened to a friend or a peer? All you can do is stand by, helpless to assist and uncertain how much to say for fear of reverse litigation.

Tina at The English Muse blog writes...

There's something terrible happening in our beautiful corner of the Internet and I cannot stay silent about it any longer. In the past two months, two of my dear blogger friends have been ripped off. Both of them had their templates stolen. Both of them had their content stolen. One of them had her blog name stolen! (I've even heard about another woman who put a right-click lock on her site to stop the thieves!) This is crazy!

There needs to be a strong code of conduct -- or a copyright lawyer who willing to fight for bloggers who want to protect their content and identities. How can we call ourselves "inspiration bloggers" when we're stealing inspiration from our colleagues? Or even from our friends?

I understand Tina's position entirely. Plagiarism is a plague on the Internet, including the service trades. Unfortunately, plagiarists often get away with it when the pursuit of the plagiarist is expensive and the payoff is slim.


On Guard In Your Business

When we hire outside copywriters at the Service Roundtable, we always check key phrases of their work products with Google. If we find a copywriter has copied the copy - and we have - that's it. We won't use the work and refuse to hire the copywriter again. I won't trust a proven thief or assume the liability of using stolen material.

I've run across ad agencies executives who wrote articles where key passages or even the entire article was copied from other people. The agency executive, simply changed the author's name. This is not someone I would trust for advice, let alone to present my business's image to the world.

Sadly, plagiarism also affects the service trades. Frankly, contractors are guilty of their share of plagiarism though the worst offenders usually operate out of ignorance. It's not an excuse, but at least their motives aren't larcenous. Still, ignorant or not, these contractors are exposing themselves to legal liability.

Clouding the issue is the fact that some copyright owners don't care about plagiarism, don't bother to enforce their rights if they do care, or are simply not around any longer. I've created material where the copyright was assigned to another legal entity as part of a work product and the legal entity has since moved on or disappeared. There's no one to turn to for permission.

Some contractors rely on third parties to provide them with original material. Like the lazy copywriter who plagiarizes, some third parties are lazy and plagiarize with purpose. The use of plagiarized material, unwitting or not, is no less of a risk.

Unfortunately, it's incumbent on the business owner to check intellectual property suppliers. In short, be on guard.