How to avoid claims of the copyright holder on the photo if the photo is uploaded by any user of the site?

Question

Law in IT

Good afternoon!

There is a commercial site for the provision of services. This site has the functionality of uploading photos by users. Users check the box to agree to the rules for providing contact information and images.

Responsibility of the parties:
If the User posted information, the distribution of which is limited or prohibited by federal laws, violates copyright or other right protected by law, the User bears full responsibility for its placement.

Now I'm getting a copyright infringement request for these photos in the mail and a significant amount is rolling out. 10k rubles per photo for out-of-court settlement. The total amount of half a million rubles. Attached to the letter are scans of the protocol of examination of evidence certified by a notary. If I do not agree, then there will be an official lawsuit in a court on the other side of the country (considering our country, this can be said in another hemisphere), and the lawsuit will already be 3 times larger. Actually in the amount of one and a half lyam rubles.

And how to deal with it and what to do now? It is clear that I should contact a lawyer, but I still hope for the experience of colleagues in this matter and who else will advise from their practice.

Thanks for any help, I'm kind of at a loss here. The amount of the claim is equal to the site's earnings for the year ...

Update: The court slapped 10k for a photo and + moral. As a result, on the floor of the lyama. In general, keep in mind.

Answer 1

Hello, it’s hard to give advice on the merits, because you need to know what it is about and how it is framed (what is in your offer, what is in the claim, whose photo, who uploaded it). If there really were violations of rights, that's one thing. If not, something else.
I understand correctly that someone uploaded a photo, and now the copyright holder says that he did not upload and this is an illegal use?
Now I would advise you to at least check this claim. Roughly speaking, this is not a scam, so that you get scared and pay.
Certification by a notary is a very expensive pleasure.
Therefore, look who the notary is, call and ask if he certified the protocols. And beforehand, I would advise you to ring other notaries in this region, find out the tariffs in order to navigate the price. Moreover, the certification of protocols will still be collected from you in case of winning in court).
And to evaluate, if they went to great expense, then they are sure that they are right.
Well, if not, you know.
The second is why the court is at the other end of the country. As a general rule, the location of the defendant.
If there is a court, then the copyright holder will have to justify the amount of the claim - that is, why they demand 30 thousand per photo, and before that they demanded 10 thousand. There are no tariffs, so it is also not obvious that you will have to pay exactly this amount, even if violation will be proven.
And besides, be sure, in any case, you will need to answer. Only not according to the principle - "I received the letter, I will not pay." And state your position.
Or that I do not agree, but the photo was deleted if the copyright holder objects. Or that I agree, violated, deleted the photo, let's agree on a price.
Because even if a violation is proven, it can be used as an argument in court - they acted in good faith, eliminated, offered.
But in general - back to the beginning, you need to look at all the documents. And it is better to contact a lawyer already at the stage of answering the claim.

Answer 2

This breeder who sent the letter uploaded the pictures himself, ahaha.
You can burn it by IP if you are logging.
Well, in essence - print this letter and tear it into 385 parts ...
Won court cases for copyright on the photos posted on the site - for now, the lot of science fiction writers, just forget it.
Look at how much the VK hospital is sticking out for. Or the hospital is OK.
)))
(buy from someone, xs, ...) a similar photo (since you talk about the tourist orientation of photos, such photos cannot cost 10k a priori ..., the same Leaning Tower of Pisa is clicked from all 360 degrees in thousands a day) and send a divorce - so and so, they say, excuse me, but this is MY photo, evening in the hut and all that)))

Answer 3

Now I'm getting a copyright infringement request for these photos in the mail and a significant amount is rolling out. 10k rubles per photo for out-of-court settlement.

By, sorry, email? :) Ignore. You didn't receive it. Googlespamfilter. There is no registered letter with a signature on receipt - there was no notification.
A bunch of pictures, and not each separately? Ignore it, it's a scam.
If each separately, and it was not indicated who the author and source are, ignore it, this is a scam.
In general, to prove the authorship of a photo, it is not enough just to say "this is my photo, and my sidekick", and the notary will not be able to confirm that this photo of the Tajmahal was taken by Ivan Ivanov yesterday, and not Tanya Petrova today. At least because digital copies are very easy to manipulate that can distort data, such as a timestamp or internal tags. Moreover, after uploading the photos to your server, they most likely undergo processing (imagemagic probably compresses them), so they will not be able to confirm the copy pixel by pixel, nor the color. And even if so, they will not be able to confirm that they had these files earlier than on your server, and they did not download them from there, or vice versa - that it was not they who uploaded them there, to your "law-abiding" server.

Answer 4

Lord, stop there they are afraid that you will be undressed.
Well, they are bred. Yes, they were afraid. Yes, they accidentally did something on the toaster. Well, everything. the fear has passed.
Take the noodles off your ears and chat online with a lawyer if you don't believe me here.
1. The court will most likely remove the amount from 1.5 million to about 15 thousand approximately
2. The court will have you
3. the notary does not certify anything.
etc.

Answer 5

well, it will be three times more, but they will also award it, if they award it at all))
the total time of the courts is up to 2 years, and if everything is captured and correct for the applicant , it’s
another matter that you, having replaced the Duma, swung too presumptuously, now you have to spend money on lawyers

Answer 6

I may say a little inappropriate comment, but I'll try.
If you have correctly drawn up the user agreement of the site, then in principle you disclaim responsibility.
I'll try to explain how I see it. In this user agreement, you indicate that when uploading third-party content, namely photos, the user who uploaded is responsible for copyright. And if he puts a tick, then he agrees with these requirements.
I may be wrong, but this is not a bad move that can be applied. And besides, no one reads these agreements, but they exist and they are agreed with.
Of course. someone will say that it does not carry any legal force and so on. But after all, when we register a mailbox for ourselves somewhere in Yandex or Google, there are exactly the same agreements with which we agree. And if you indicated this, then you can simply safely transfer the contacts of those who uploaded them or simply delete the photos.
I am not an expert in this, but I really want to help you. And I tried to constructively explain how I see it from the outside.

Answer 7

Delete, but only if the complainant asserts his rights to his own materials. And the user will be given a warning if he continues to violate the ban for a day.