Fairlicensing Arvostelua 4

This copyright claim company to strive for "fair and proportional response". Yet they're as big a scoundrel as any other, just keen on extorting as much as possible.$400 for a thumbnail sized picture in a 13 year old nonprofit newsletter? Sure. And they'll stand by it. Lie, manipulate, abuse the law. Any of their clients that believe these are actually fair folks should wonder why this is a for profit company. Zero incentive to actually be fair. Same old copyright cowboy, different jacket. Unethical, extortionist, greedy.

I am a 16 years old, school going student who wish to be a web developer one day. I started one educational travel blog website with no proper design and no commercial intent just for my practice. Unknowingly, i used one image from google search. In April, they sent me email to pay 450 pounds for "copyright settlement". I live in a small country in Asia and there is no way i can afford so much money in my lifetime. Millions of people sleep without food in my region and they are concerned about an image. I am so scared i deleted my website forever and had to see doctor due to unimaginable stress. I am slipping into depression due to them. Surely suing a kid for taking one image from google will get them good press coverage.

A bunch of scammers and price gougers out for what they can get from small businesses and bloggers. Best to just ignore their emails entirely as they never follow up with anything other than repeated threats from low paid administrators with no legal experience.

Fairlicensing first came on my radar when we received a copyright strike at work seemingly coming from Alamy, the photo agency. They demanded hundreds of pounds for an image that we used on our website. I looked into this and realised that the image in question had been in the public domain years before it was copyrighted by someone on Alamy (and I'm guessing it wasn't the original photographer either!) Fairlicensing is nothing more than a platform for copyright trolls to make a quick buck by making false claims - they're only bluffing - they have no idea whether you own a licence or not - as they are not employed by the agencies. However, this despicable practice is endorsed by several photo agencies like Alamy and they never check whether the claims made in their name are genuine. Innocent web users then unnecessarily end up paying hundreds of pounds to avoid the threat of legal action. You might be using an image that originated in the public domain and still get a copyright strike! Frankly, this is nothing less than a scam! Any sleaze ball can sign up as a free user on the platform with a 50 % share of profits to make false copyright claims. How is this even legal? Do not use any of the agencies listed on the Fairlicensing website, because even if you buy a licence you might get a strike.