I do have problems and trouble, but not with the KPA but i want to share this. URGENTLY!

    in the last e-mail from california the "manager" of the photographer wrote that he "now has order from his boss to go to court in order to settle this issue".


    well, i have researched a little bit and found out that american justice works totally different compared to german.
    as far as i understand it "the service of process" needs it that i receive the "service of summons and complaint" first and
    that i would have to sign this document and send it back to the federal court of california. and that my opponent is going to pay for his own lawyer.


    any americans here? do i understand it correctly? if this were the case, i think i can forget the threats, because - unless the photographer wants to
    lead a personal war against me, which i dont believe - the effort as well as the costs of all of this would be ridicuously high.






    .

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    What I still don't understand is that you're still willing to receive those mails.
    They bother you. And upset you. Every time.
    Normally the moment you have engaged a lawyer EVERY conversation should go via and by your lawyer and, to my understanding, it is against lawyers' order of profession (Berufsordnung) to contact the opponent directly after this.

    I won't offer legal advice as I'm not a lawyer. As a musician and involved with professional entertainment for several years, I would suggest discussing this with good legal representation and put it behind you until someone forces the issue to be in front of you. If you have a lawyer, shut up and let the lawyer handle it.


    I pay my bills, IF THE BILL IS SOMETHING I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR. I also will not favorably respond to extortion... There is a range of description that can cover or not apply to situations.


    Get the best advice you can.


    You seem very troubled and this person's contacts are seemingly causing you great stress. That doesn't seem equitable. Best of luck. Remember that worry solves nothing.

    Edited 3 times, last by 1fastdog ().

    Ingolf and fastdog, thank you for posting!


    yes, i let my lawyer do the talking. no, me-I do not respond to those mails, but my lawyer. but he forwards those mails asap, ofcourse.


    but - this manager did not accept the offer from my lawyer, has stopped conversation with him and threatend to reach out to the
    (i presume) federal court of california. my lawyer has no accreditation in the US. since the
    photographer has two residences, one in germany and one in california, and because websites are accesible
    all over the world, he could call ANY court in the world, even in Brazil, although my homepage is in german only (!).


    if this is the trick this guy is pulling, my lawyer cannot work for me in the US and the rest is unpredictable even to my lawyer.
    so my question was and still is: has my research been successfull in finding those facts i mentioned in my last post? if the procedure
    is that complicated and will cost them a considerable sum of money, they will target other victims and leave me alone. and i could
    relax a bit and wait patiently until the (improbable) letter from california arrives.




    kind regards, geraldo





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    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Edited once, last by Geraldo7 ().

    C'mon Geraldo, you need to stop letting this guy harass you! If he had serious intent he would have contacted you in a serious way, not as a manipulating bully. I would not answer his mails, I would not forward them to your lawyer and add to your expenses. Why hasn't he contacted you via a German representative? You think any country on this planet can go suing people in other countries with their local laws, as they see fit? I'd do nothing until a letter from a German lawyer shows up in your mail.


    The silly amounts of $ he presented obviously doesn't apply in your case. That would be if McDonalds "stole" a photo and used it in a global campaign without, knowingly, compensating the photographer. In your case it wouldn't be more than what you'd have to pay to use the photo on your homepage.


    You're one man on the internet, doing a silly thing, just like millions of others. Going after you in court would be beyond silly. The money changing hands in this scenario would be for the benefit of the lawyers only.


    ""Courts will usually award as damages the normal commercial fee that
    would have been paid by a company to license the image in the first
    place in such cases and award additional damages only where a company
    can show that the breach of copyright was flagrant.""

    Edited once, last by Trazan ().

    Geraldo, seriously, add that @$$hole to your spam filter and ignore him. Even if he takes you to court in California any German court would not consider it. Kids that download and share music in Germany gets a couple of hundreds € deal from the lawyer (with 1000's of downloads). Tell him ESAD and ban his domain from your router.

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    I'm no lawyer either.


    That said, I understand this to be the case:


    1) you in no way profited from using and copyrighted pictures
    2) when first notified, you complied and took the image/s down


    At that point, there are no damages to the copyright owner, so I don't see how they can get ANY compensation at all.


    And the cost of a lawyer? Typically a Lawyer will charge $100-$300 to sent one or a few letters that are "Cease and Desist" letters to get you to STOP.
    Which you already did. Then a lawyer will start charging thousands. Typically asking for $5000 up front to work on it for a few months.


    Since there are no damages, I'd be surprised a lawyer would even take up the case since you aren't even in their jurisdiction. PLUS, the "crime" was committed where you live! Which is, I believe, Germany? So he should properly get a lawyer in Germany?!?


    Well, in ANY case, you could just ignore him until you get an official summons and let your lawyer handle it.



    There are some individuals that like harassing people, sometimes using the courts, where these things go on for years and in the end NEVER resolve, since they often don't even pay their lawyers who drop representation.


    My advice? Since you've taken the pictures down, do nothing. Let him rant, ignore him, until an official summons arrives.


    If it were me, I'd start an internet meme of outing this guy, by name, by address, to his employer and neighborhood, that you have complied with his wishes and he continues to harass you. Sometimes digging in their personal space scares them off, since they are bullies and this is like punching them in the nose.

    I agree with a lot of the others posters opinions but disagree on one main point. I would NOT block his email address.


    Explain to your lawyer that these emails are causing you distress and have the lawyer request all further communications on the matter be made through formal channels and in a structured manner - ie: make a documented legal claim or shut the hell up. Any further vage fishing emails on the matter would then be seen as harrasment on their behalf.


    Leave it at that and get back to enjoying life.


    This has gone on far too long and frankly, their communications makes no sense to me at all. They threaten by throwing out seemingly random and obscene compensation numbers and cant even get the dates of use correct in an email. The whole thing sounds like a large load of BS to me.


    Dont let it get you down Geraldo!


    This is very flawed advice. Unfortunately I have to leave it at that. The good news is Geraldo has an attorney. Let's let him do his job.

    ESAD! ha![Blocked Image: http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-laughing025.gif]you saved my day!



    thank you so much for your support. i think we can close the case now until further notice.
    my lawyer said: "we wait!" and that's what i'm gonna do. if another mail gets forwarded , i will tell
    my lawyer to do nothing. and if me-myself or my lawyer receives any WRITTEN legal notice, i
    will bother this best of all communities again.




    cheers, life is good



    .

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    hi folks,
    spoke to my lawyer on the phone just the other day concerning something else and i said to him:
    "i do not believe that something's coming after those weeks of silence!"
    he said: "oh, i think he going to collect all the cases and is figuring out how much money he can squeeze out!"
    "Oh!", i said, "so when do you think will some kind of information about a case in court from america arrive?"
    "Well, i dont think he will go to court!" "?????"
    "But we dont know. and believing is not knowing!"


    sigh ...


    we do not know.we think, we believe. it would be supernice if some of you guys from the United States of America could comment.
    how is the procedure in the US exactly. some of you are in business, so some must have received this kind of notice or whatever it is called.
    question: how long does it take (if this guy goes to court) until i or my attorney receive something written? thanks a lot.

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.