URGENT

- defamatory content on your website

Subject: URGENT - defamatory content on your website From: julie@blacklinelaw.ca Date: 11/13/2011 11:28 AM To: oscarmichelen@gmail.com CC: ma 30060@gmail.com
Mr. Michelen and Mr. Chan, I am a Canadian lawyer who recently represented a professional fine-art photographer and his agent in a copyright infringement claim. The infringing party was a for-profit corporation that used my clients' images without purchasing a license. The cease and desist/ settlement demand letter has been posted in various places associated with your website with the suggestion that it is an 'extortion letter' and publicizes my name as well as my clients name. I have reported it as prohibited content to facebook and Scribd, both in respect of slander, defamation and libel AND copyright infringement. Please confirm that this letter and all references to it will be removed from your website and any associated sites (facebook, Scribd, Twitter, etc.) immediately along with any reference to my name, my business name and my clients name. My clients images are high-quality professional-grade photographs created for professional use. Companies looking for professional-grade images purchase licenses from my client. Professional-grade images come with a price tag because they often cost the photographer money to produce. I work with many photographers, and they can spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, to create their work (i.e., purchasing equipment, paying models, etc.) While I completely understand that it can be upsetting to receive a cease and desist/ settlement demand letter, please also understand that it is equally upsetting to the photographers to find that for-profit companies are using their images without paying for them. It is theft, plain and simple. Yes, it is upsetting to be on the wrong side of the law. Under Canadian law, even if an infringers use of an image was innocent, the infringement subjects them to liability for damages plus the costs of proceeding against them. To prove innocent infringement, you would have to show that you had no reasonable grounds for believing you had infringed a defence rarely accepted by the courts, and difficult to establish for commercial websites. Nevertheless, my clients settlement demands are calculated to assume that infringement is innocent and only include the likely award for damages (the catalogue license price for the size, length and type of use in question) plus the costs of pursuing the claim, including legal fees. In fact, the settlement demand is often significantly lower than the minimum that a court would award as damages for innocent infringement. There is nothing 'extortionist' about requiring the owner of a for-profit commercial website to pay a license fee to a photographer who earns his

1 of 2

11/14/2011 8:35 PM

URGENT - defamatory content on your website

living from his work. It is entirely in line with Canadian copyright infringement law, as it ought to be. My clients are committed to amicable, fair settlement and simply want to get paid for their work as anyone else does. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. I hope that we can resolve this quickly and without me and my clients having to pursue further action. Julie

Julie Stewart Lawyer, Blackline Art + Entertainment Law T: 1-(416)-628-8364 F: 1-(416)-628-8364 www.blacklinelaw.ca This e-mail message and any attachments may be privileged, confidential and subject to copyright. Any unauthorized review, copying, transmittal, use or disclosure is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient you have received this message in error. Please immediately notify us by reply or collect telephone call to 1-(416)-628-8364 and destroy this message and any attachments.

2 of 2

11/14/2011 8:35 PM