PA Media infringment

[Grahammarks]

Hi All, just wondering how this has been going and if you have heard more? and also if PA / Pic rights have even taken anyone here to small claims? I see a lot of messages about threats from them and lots of people saying they will make counter offers and so on but I've not seen if any of these myriad of messages about PA have ever ended in small claims court and if they have has anyone ever lost a claim and therefore suffered a large loss? And if they have lost have they been given fair payment terms by the court?

[Disgruntled123]

It's been just about a year since I last heard from PA Media about my image. The case rumbled on for 4-5 months, during which time I immediately paid the appropriate license fee (about £30) online as the image was still being offered for sale, and I offered reasonable additional costs (another £30) for the inconvenience, which they declined. The final email from them said they would escalate it and could come back to me at any time in future. Which is quite scary to have hanging over me and is why I still check this forum to see how others may be progressing.

[Grahammarks]

Thanks, it's interesting to hear as I think I am about to be in the same boat as you. Did they physically ever write to you or was this all via email? And as you dragged it out did they keep increasing what they said you owed? I've been trying hard to find out if they have ever taken anyone to court and also if, after paying what they demand, if anyone has then been hit with a load bills more from them for other images. We had a bill from an associated business for £70 misuse which we paid and three days later PA hit us for £600 for a different image. All many years old and on a blog that a third party ran for us. I'm just trying to decide what to do. My business is already on its knees.
A top firm that specialises in this that charge big rates gave me some free off the record advice which was basically don't engage with them at all and in many cases they give up as its not worth the effort for a small amount but I'm concerned we have more images, even though we've taken all blogs offline I think they captured our website as we had what out hosting provider called an 'attack' a week before this happened and they had to block ip addresses that ground our website to a halt....
Anyone knows any more PLEASE share

[Lenny]

Hi, Joining the thread as I too have received a dreaded email from PA Media Group for an alleged image infringment and would like to see how best to deal with this.

Granted there appears to have been an error of judgement on my part and complete naivety as to this whole process. No excuses, mistake made and lessons learnt but to receive an email requesting payment of £450 for 1 image used for it would appear less than 10 days on a news item blog seems excessive punishment. A polite request to remove and a strong warning would suffice, even a instruction to purchase the rights to use the image from this point on would seem fair.

So as it stands I am simply going to ignore any email correspondence and threats to see how this plays out. No acknowledgment to any such infringement will be made. Not sure how legally binding emails sent to a generic info@ address are but for a small claims court proceeding to begin I would assume a responsible party would need to be contacted by post with a Notice of Hearing or similar.

For the record I completley understand how this is a protection of the original image owner and like most of us I'm sure never intended to deny anybody what they are rightfully owed but this whole process appears to be very underhand and maybe not even beneifting the person in question.

[Disgruntled123]

Thanks, it's interesting to hear as I think I am about to be in the same boat as you. Did they physically ever write to you or was this all via email? And as you dragged it out did they keep increasing what they said you owed? I've been trying hard to find out if they have ever taken anyone to court and also if, after paying what they demand, if anyone has then been hit with a load bills more from them for other images. We had a bill from an associated business for £70 misuse which we paid and three days later PA hit us for £600 for a different image. All many years old and on a blog that a third party ran for us. I'm just trying to decide what to do. My business is already on its knees.
A top firm that specialises in this that charge big rates gave me some free off the record advice which was basically don't engage with them at all and in many cases they give up as its not worth the effort for a small amount but I'm concerned we have more images, even though we've taken all blogs offline I think they captured our website as we had what out hosting provider called an 'attack' a week before this happened and they had to block ip addresses that ground our website to a halt....
Anyone knows any more PLEASE share

All by email and they never tried to increase the fee but it was already absurdly high for an image in truth they were selling at £30ish on Alamy. If I'd been independent to it all I'd probably have found it funny as the PA media emails were ridiculous. Their main argument seemed to be that "yes, the fee was only £30 at the time, but because you didn't pay it then, now we can charge you absolutely any random number we think of, tough titty". Random punitive punishment doesn't seem to fit with the advice of AndyJ which should be compensation in line with the true loss.

They constantly contradicted themselves, denying blatant facts and when I pointed this out they backtracked and tried some more nonsense. I retrospectively paid the proper fee I should have paid in advance and offered them some additional and that's my lot. If it ever got to a small claims court I've saved all the screen shots and all the emails and I'll just argue that their case is a total mess and that I've made serious efforts to *appropriately* compensate them.

[Kazzalisa]

My first demand was February. I have now rent 3rd and final demand which has increased by £100 and states if not paid, they may start legal proceedings.
I have not engaged with their emails and have received nothing through the post.

[Lenny]

Hey Kazzalisa, what have they attributed the extra £100 to?

My current mindest is that I will be waiting for official non payment court proceedings to be issued correctly to a named Defendant rather than pay over the odds for something that is being requested by email with random payment links.

[Kazzalisa]

It doesn’t give a reason for increase………

This is our final outreach in goodwill, understanding that mistakes can happen. We offer a license for a one-time fee of 517.50 GBP to settle the unauthorised use.

You can resolve this matter by visiting our Settlement Portal here:

View Case Details

Alternatively, you can resolve this matter by visiting our Settlement Portal at fairlicensing.pamediagroup.com.

Our hope was, and remains, that legal proceedings can be avoided. By acquiring the license, you can rectify this situation.

Please understand, that while you may not hear from us in the near future, this matter remains unresolved, and the case will stay open.

[Grahammarks]

Hi To All, I will be doing the same, and if I get anything by post I will let you all know. We should all do the same and I am also thinking I may contact my MP about what I feel are threatening emails and unfair financial demands over a very minor mistake. I have heard from two parish councils that had the same emails and took legal advice and both offered a very minor amount that was accepted and I think this was because they are parish councils with legal help then claimants knew they would get nowhere and court action would not be cost effective. This, I feel, is all about scaring people. I also have a free conversion with a specialist solicitor on this subject whom had spoken with many individuals and micro businesses which are targeted by these people and basically was told do not engage via email and its highly likely you will hear nothing official again other than emails. If you do get a letter contact us for help (expensive but unlikely to ever be needed). Please do share anything you find and keep us informed of your own issue, I will donthw same. I find this utterly despicable.

[Kazzalisa]

Thanks. I will do the same and let you know if I receive anything further.