Deny your liability to pay 1250 euros demanded by Kodakone
2) ask K to furnish evidence that image is owned by Blabult and that k is authorised to conduct collection activities
3) take the plea that there is no copyright infringement by you
Copyright Notice from Kodakone demanding 1250 Euros for an image
I have a blog titled Facts Legend (https://factslegend.org/). The blog came into existence in 2014 (April). On October 12, 2014, I posted a blog and used an image. The image that I used was from Google search. Back then I was not aware of all the fuss about copyright (international and national laws) and so, I used the image that I found. Fast forward 2020, I received an email from Kodakone Post-licensing team pointing to that image and stating that it was a copyrighted image owned by Blaublut-Edition. Kodaone is a new company that started operation in 2018-2019 as a new blockchain and post-licensing company that uses reverse image search technology to find websites that used the images that say are owned by Blaublut-Edition. Blaublut is an image licensing company located in Germany and Kodakone is also a company from Germany. Since Blaublut is an image licensing company, technically, the image is owned by the creator and not Blaublut itself. They only create a license for use. None of those technicalities really matter to me because eventually the image is hosted on Blaublut's site and it cannot be downloaded without a watermark (that too a low-resolution image). The image I took from Google was from some other website and the image widely circulates on the internet on at least 40+ websites. Ever since I received the email from Kodakone, I removed the image from my blog and server. Kodakone has not sent any Cease-and-Desist notice. It directly sent me an invoice of 1250 Euros and is asking me to pay the amount in full to settle outside of court and prevent legal and cost escalations. They are asking me to pay that money to get a retroactive license for the image. My blog doesn't make that kind of money in the first place. I did not receive any cease-and-desist notice. I used the image in complete error with no intentions of copyright infringement. Over time I have learned about the copyright issues and now I use only stock images and videos which come with commercial use license (yes, my blog has been monetized through ads) or I use images from Public Domain and provide proper source and credit info. Back in 2014 when I was new to blogging, I had no idea of all these things. I garnered the knowledge over time. I did some search online and found that Kodakone does send such emails to bloggers and website owners worldwide. Many have sought legal advice online and they have been asked to simply ignore those emails or ask Kodakone to provide proofs of copyright ownership and right to conduct collection activities in other countries. What should I do now?
Asked 5 years ago in Intellectual Property
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8 Answers
Hello Sir, Thank you for your reply. Here is what I need to know: 1. Deny liability to pay the money - What should be my exact words to them in the mail? 2. Kodakone has sent some attachments which has an authorization letter from Stock4B GmbH (owner of Blaublut) which authorizes Ryde (the company which created Kodakone) stating that Kodaone is authorized to enforce claims. Also, the image in question is actually on Blaublut site. 3. What do you mean by 'Take a Plea that there is no copyright infringement by you'? Are you pointing to the fact that I did not do that intentionally and that I took the image from some random site through Google search and not from Blaublut's site?
Asked 5 years ago
You have to take the defence that there was no reason to believe the image was copyrighted
2) you had immediately removed the images as soon as it was pointed out to you that image was owned by Blaubult
3) deny that you are liable to pay 1250euros as clAimed in notice
- As per law, Copyright infringement is when someone uses the copyright-protected work of someone else,without permission.
- Further, If something is protected by copyright, you generally cannot legally make it available to the public in any format, digital or otherwise, without permission of the person or body who holds the copyright.
- Hence, you should take plea that the said website was not giving any warning for claim , at the time of copying the said image .
- Further, this was done randomly , unintentionally without knowing that the said website is a paid one , and coping images was not allowed without permission , hence you are not liable to pay the same.
- And when you receive the instruction that the copying is forbidden without permission , then you have already deleted the same.
- Since, you have already deleted the said copied image , and not using the same further, then you should to reply that , this image was unintentionally & randomly was taken , and further the said image is not used commercially and publicly . and hence under the Copyright Act, you are not liable for the same.
1. Deny the liable abruptly
2. It's good
3. Its ambition unless proved. You can also state that majority of members believe in fair Transportation
If you are caught using Copyrighted Material or image owned by a legal copyright owner, you may have to pay him Civil Damages.
1. No need to pay attention toward this mail and you can ask for copyright licence details to prove their ownership over the image.
2. You can send reply that image was not taken from Blaublut site because it doesn't contain any watermark of that site which proves that image was downloaded from their site.
You have rightly heard about what is to be done on this in furtherance.
You may send a reply notice to them asking for the evidence to their allegations against you and then ignore their claims.
They may not be able to sue you without evidence for copyrights fermenting.
You can issue a reply notice denying their allegations through an advocate and proceed on the advise of the advocate on all such further issues as well.
1. You deny the allegations leveled against you and also the liability towards the claim they have made and you may put them in writing properly so that there is no ambiguity or commitment while giving this denial reply.
2. You deny the knowledge of their technical details and maintain that you have not infringed any copyrights so far
3. You can mention that ther was no copyright infringement by downloading the google provided item which are available in a random search itself and deny to have utilised their copyrights for any monetary benefits and also mention that such things are freely availble in google search websites, hence he may have to claim the damages against the google only and not from you.