Masterfile Evil Evil Evil! Toronto Ontario
I have had major problems with this company! My wife used a stock art image on her website - a hobby site about cycling in China - which, as far as she knew, was a creative-commons image. She even made a citation as to the source of this image.
Over a year later we got a letter in the mail from Masterfile claiming the image was copyrighted and demanding over $4,000 in "damages".
I actually have no idea if they are telling the truth or not, but regardless, I was happy to take the image down giving them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they would behave like reasonable human beings, accept my appology and be done with it. However they have relentlessly hounded me and are now threatening to sue me in court for thousands more.
Something is seriously wrong with the legal system to allow this kind of behavior. That's the worst thing about it - this is legal. It may be legal but it is the most morally bankrupt behaviour I have ever seen from an educated person. This company SHOULD NOT BE PATRONIZED as your money will be going to encourage this kind of horrible, horrible "copyright trolling". These guys should all be disbarred for ethics violations.
Anyway, I don't care. I've moved permanently to China now and there's no way they'll track me down. Scum.