Just to add an experience I had. About fifteen years ago a member of a Yahoo regional history group I belonged to sent an attached photo in a message post. The group owner went ballistic because he feared the photographer finding out and suing the group for a copyright violation. I was one of the moderators and I told the owner we could just delete the message with the photo. The owner was convinced he would be held liable and wind up losing his house.
In this group we had a member who WAS a lawyer. Someone many of us knew personally and greatly respected. The lawyer responded that first of all, the photo already existed on the internet? and that was where the image came from. Reusing an image (not from a negative or print) but from a digital image available to the public at large, was kind of a gray area in copyright law. Or at least it was in 2005. Secondly, if someone sues over a copyright violation, the damages asked for have to have a basis in reality.? Someone posted a digital image of one of this gentleman's photo to a private Yahoo group. What kind of financial loss would that cost the photographer? Especially when the photographer had already made the image available over the internet.
The lawyer said, in his experience, the remedy was usually not paying monetary damages but simply agreeing to take the image down. That he had represented a corporate client who had used a photo of a football player being tackled in an ad campaign without permission. Someone at the National Football League saw it and filed a copyright violation. The corporate client agreed to remove the ads and that satisfied the NFL.
My point here is, don't be bullied by someone threatening to sue. On what basis? Libel, slander? How was the party damaged financially? Loss of earnings, loss of reputation?? The lawyer told us people would be surprised how many lawsuits get dismissed at filing. For the court to accept the filing, the plaintiff is required to show they have a plausible case. The plaintiff also has to convince a judge they have a reasonable chance of winning whatever damages they are asking for. If the plaintiff can't do those two things the judge will refuse to put it on the calendar, and the suit will be dismissed. That civil courts don't just drag everyone into court to 'find out what this is all about.'
tommy0421
Tommy Meehan