Discussion:Need some suggestions to research a legal matter
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Actionbsns (talk|edits) said: | 21 May 2009 |
| We all know how search challenged I am, and now I want to research a legal issue and I'm hoping somebody can help me find some phrases that will help me. The women's group that I belong to made the mistake of using a poem on our website (10 years ago!!!), that the members at that time thought was public domaine since the credit was "Annonymous" or "Author Unknown". It's a charming poem about a punctuation mark that looks a lot like a hyphen and how it relates to life. Turns out the author has hired a team of people to research the internet looking for unsuspecting people or groups who have unwittingly used her work, and is now writing letters demanding $5,000, or a lawsuit. One of our members is an elderly lady about 85, who's high school graduating class is having their final reunion this year and used her poem on their invitations. It was a small class to begin with and now there are only a few of them left and they have been told to pay up or be sued as well.
We have enlisted a lawyer to write a letter and have received a response, not favorable. So we are contemplating our next move, one choice is to just let her implement her lawsuit. I was trying to find other lawsuits that might have been filed by this person and see what the results have been but haven't found anything. I've used the author's name followed by "litigation" and "vs. xxx", the poem's name followed by "lawsuits", the name of the poem and the author's name, nothing comes up as it relates to a lawsuit. Any thoughts that would help? We are having a board meeting on Friday to determine what our next move should be. She's on the East Coast and pursuing a lawsuit in Honolulu over the amount of money she's demanding is most likely not worth the effort unless she is experiencing a high rate of success in her efforts. It would be helpful for our decision making to know if that's a fact. | |
| 21 May 2009 | |
| Where is this lawyer located that is writing you the letter? Oh, I see, East Coast. I guess it's possible he could associate a lawyer in your state. But jeez.
Anyway: do a search of the lawyers name on the internet, also, try the writer's name followed by vs. You never know, but this has the odor of a hustle to me. | |
TheTinCook (talk|edits) said: | 21 May 2009 |
| "She's on the East Coast and pursuing a lawsuit in Honolulu over the amount of money she's demanding is most likely not worth the effort unless she is experiencing a high rate of success in her efforts."
Yeah, but think how cheap sending a letter is on the off chance somebody pays off to avoid the hassle.
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| 21 May 2009 | |
| It might be very profitable to send out hundreds of such letters to anyone using a poem by 'anonymous'. Unfortunately, I have to state that I am NOT anonymous, I am someone else.
In other words - a scam. | |
| May 21, 2009 | |
| That's a good point. If you just do a search for that poem, how many places does it come up? If they all say "author unknown" or "anonymous," then I would agree the probability of it being a scam is very high. | |
Actionbsns (talk|edits) said: | 21 May 2009 |
| Thanks, you guys are always helpful. I did try copyright infringement with the poem's title and the author's name. That worked better than what I had been doing. (BTW, it rhymes with "The Bash"-she has an incredible search engine that finds the most remote incidences if its use, so on this public forum, using the title could bring her here). Anyway, I was able to find her copyright number, and it seems she's been doing this for years. What a way to make a living. I did read about Fair Use and I'm wondering if we could be successful in our defense if it came to it. What I haven't been able to find is how other contacts have been settled. One website printed a mea culpa statement calling the author gracious and giving her full credit, another one printed a similar mea culpa statement and linked to her poem and her website, neither indicate money was paid and the dates are 2000 and about 2003. Later incidences indicate a demand for money as high as $10,000 from a very small group. Her original demand to us was $5,000 and she responded to our lawyer asking for $2500. I googled her lawyer's name and nothing came up. We have a board meeting tomorrow morning to make a decision. One of our members is a retired lawyer and she will be there. I just wish I could find out how other cases have settled out - has anyone actually paid her money? Is she willing to relentlessly pursue her monetary demands? Her poem, while it's inspirational, is kind of what you might expect to find on a greeting card - it's nice but it's not Shakespeare. | |
| 21 May 2009 | |
| Perhaps if the retired lawyer on your board has a chance to review some copyright law tonight, she might be of help. It's not something most lawyers have any experience with.
My feeling is that what the club did was not fair use, because I suspect that you used the whole poem, and you did not use it for educational purposes. However, I must say that I am not a copyright expert either. What I find interesting is how this poem got to be circulated as being "anonymous" as to authorship to begin with? Ever thought of that? One wonders if the author herself might have intentionally pushed this poem under "anonymous", i.e. intentionally set a trap for people. I hate for anyone have to knuckle under to such things as this. I would imagine you could probably sit down with a copyright lawyer there in HI for $250.00 (1 hour) or so, but I just have no idea of the fee situation out there. | |
