So my company and I have been getting harassed by this YouTube user over the last couple of months now. He's escalated things by threatening to sue, even hiring a legal advisor to contact me. But here's some background info before I get into that:
He took a video I made without our permission, and then uploaded parts of it to his own channel including my channel logo, my voice, my channel background, etc; and basically used them in a smear piece. He was profiting off of the video, and he used almost half of our original video (nearly 20 minutes).
He even had parts of the video where he admitted that he was just ranting, calling it "Rant mode on", and in other parts of the video he tried to quote half of Wikipedia sentences in order to mislead people into believing his opinion was based on fact, when it the sentence he quoted actually said the opposite.
I should also mention that according to YouTube, his video doesn't fall under Fair Use:
https://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=167335
1) He was making a profit off of this video via his AdSense, so it wasn't non-profit or for educational purposes.
2) He used many sources out of context, and they were all from Wikipedia, at that.
3) He used almost half of my entire video, so it's not like it was just tidbits here and there.
4) Since it was basically a smear piece, he definitely damaged our ability to profit from our original video.
Anywho, I submitted a DMCA claim and had his video removed, and they did. I believed it was a legitimate case because he wasn't innocently critiquing the video, but straight-out bashing it.
But then he uploaded about 6 more videos harassing me and my fans and has not let up since.
When I found out that it was hurting his Adsense account too, and since I had been in the same boat as him previously, I asked YouTube to remove the DMCA claim because I was just tired of the drama and it wasn't worth it.
They removed it, but now I'm still being harassed by this person. Apparently my show of good faith wasn't enough for him, because he actually contacted an online-based legal advisor, which apparently cost him $150 just to consult with.
But this guy didn't even lose that much money from having his AdSense removed, so he's being completely ridiculous at this point. He only lost about $25-$50 tops.
They sent me an email saying this:
"___________ has hired me to analyze the facts and circumstances surrounding your take down notice to YouTube. And whether your conduct violated 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) and what rights and remedies he has against you. In short, my client has a prima facie misrepresentation claim against you for violating 512(f).
However, my client prefers not to file a lawsuit, but rather, resolve this informally. Although your e-mail to You Tube withdrawing the notice was a nice first step, and the primary reason you are not currently being served with a federal lawsuit, it is only the first step..."
Then they said that this person would "settle their claims" against me if I comply to his demands, which consists of:
1) I make a video reading a RIDICULOUS apology letter that this person wrote. It's extremely unnecessary and out of line. The fact that a lawyer would allow it is ridiculous in the first place.
2) That I pay him $10,000 if I file a future copyright claim against him. This would basically give him a full green-light to assault us as much as he wants in the future.
3) That I don't post any videos or be involved with the website that I made for my own channel, for a month, and that I don't interact with them.
These are ridiculous claims, but I don't really know what to do about this.
Only a judge can determine whether or not the DMCA claim was false. According to YouTube's filing policy, I did nothing wrong, because I filed it on good faith that I thought it was a legitimate claim.
I still feel that it was a legitimate claim, but I didn't want to let the drama continue so I just removed it.
I live in the USA, and he lives in Canada. Let's hypothetically say he does sue, wouldn't that make things complicated? The "legal" representative he hired is based in the US, so does that change things?
I read that there's a small-claims requirement now of at least $10,000 in damages or something. And he definitely didn't have anything anywhere near that. If anything he's damaged us more and unfairly hurt our reputation and harassed us just because he was angry over a DMCA claim.
If I ignore this, do you think he would have a legitimate chance at suing me over this? Like I said, I still feel the claim was legitimate. But I don't have the money to go to court or hire a legal adviser of my own over something this stupid, but this YouTube channel (it's actually a company of mine) has been in existence for over 2 years, and it's basically my entire lifeblood right now. Other than that I'm just your average college student. This guy is 32 and is clearly a lunatic.
Should I ignore it completely? Should I respond and just say no?
Would any court even take his case seriously? Would I have to attend the court case if he does sue? How much could it cost?
This is just so ridiculous. I mean it was a freaking YouTube video and he didn't even lose more than $25 over it. But now I'm panicked. So what should I do?
Thanks so much to anybody who can give me peace-of-mind that goes beyond "get your own legal advisor".
He took a video I made without our permission, and then uploaded parts of it to his own channel including my channel logo, my voice, my channel background, etc; and basically used them in a smear piece. He was profiting off of the video, and he used almost half of our original video (nearly 20 minutes).
He even had parts of the video where he admitted that he was just ranting, calling it "Rant mode on", and in other parts of the video he tried to quote half of Wikipedia sentences in order to mislead people into believing his opinion was based on fact, when it the sentence he quoted actually said the opposite.
I should also mention that according to YouTube, his video doesn't fall under Fair Use:
https://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=167335
1) He was making a profit off of this video via his AdSense, so it wasn't non-profit or for educational purposes.
2) He used many sources out of context, and they were all from Wikipedia, at that.
3) He used almost half of my entire video, so it's not like it was just tidbits here and there.
4) Since it was basically a smear piece, he definitely damaged our ability to profit from our original video.
Anywho, I submitted a DMCA claim and had his video removed, and they did. I believed it was a legitimate case because he wasn't innocently critiquing the video, but straight-out bashing it.
But then he uploaded about 6 more videos harassing me and my fans and has not let up since.
When I found out that it was hurting his Adsense account too, and since I had been in the same boat as him previously, I asked YouTube to remove the DMCA claim because I was just tired of the drama and it wasn't worth it.
They removed it, but now I'm still being harassed by this person. Apparently my show of good faith wasn't enough for him, because he actually contacted an online-based legal advisor, which apparently cost him $150 just to consult with.
But this guy didn't even lose that much money from having his AdSense removed, so he's being completely ridiculous at this point. He only lost about $25-$50 tops.
They sent me an email saying this:
"___________ has hired me to analyze the facts and circumstances surrounding your take down notice to YouTube. And whether your conduct violated 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) and what rights and remedies he has against you. In short, my client has a prima facie misrepresentation claim against you for violating 512(f).
However, my client prefers not to file a lawsuit, but rather, resolve this informally. Although your e-mail to You Tube withdrawing the notice was a nice first step, and the primary reason you are not currently being served with a federal lawsuit, it is only the first step..."
Then they said that this person would "settle their claims" against me if I comply to his demands, which consists of:
1) I make a video reading a RIDICULOUS apology letter that this person wrote. It's extremely unnecessary and out of line. The fact that a lawyer would allow it is ridiculous in the first place.
2) That I pay him $10,000 if I file a future copyright claim against him. This would basically give him a full green-light to assault us as much as he wants in the future.
3) That I don't post any videos or be involved with the website that I made for my own channel, for a month, and that I don't interact with them.
These are ridiculous claims, but I don't really know what to do about this.
Only a judge can determine whether or not the DMCA claim was false. According to YouTube's filing policy, I did nothing wrong, because I filed it on good faith that I thought it was a legitimate claim.
I still feel that it was a legitimate claim, but I didn't want to let the drama continue so I just removed it.
I live in the USA, and he lives in Canada. Let's hypothetically say he does sue, wouldn't that make things complicated? The "legal" representative he hired is based in the US, so does that change things?
I read that there's a small-claims requirement now of at least $10,000 in damages or something. And he definitely didn't have anything anywhere near that. If anything he's damaged us more and unfairly hurt our reputation and harassed us just because he was angry over a DMCA claim.
If I ignore this, do you think he would have a legitimate chance at suing me over this? Like I said, I still feel the claim was legitimate. But I don't have the money to go to court or hire a legal adviser of my own over something this stupid, but this YouTube channel (it's actually a company of mine) has been in existence for over 2 years, and it's basically my entire lifeblood right now. Other than that I'm just your average college student. This guy is 32 and is clearly a lunatic.
Should I ignore it completely? Should I respond and just say no?
Would any court even take his case seriously? Would I have to attend the court case if he does sue? How much could it cost?
This is just so ridiculous. I mean it was a freaking YouTube video and he didn't even lose more than $25 over it. But now I'm panicked. So what should I do?
Thanks so much to anybody who can give me peace-of-mind that goes beyond "get your own legal advisor".