UPDATE 5: It has been a while since we updated this topic actually, a long time (July 30, 2021). Mostly because there has been no updated news to offer from that date.
To recap, we were threatened with a lawsuit by a known Internet Copyright Troll (Higbee and Associates) for using a photo that had no copyright information attached to it. It was a picture covering a small news item concerning the graduation of offspring of those NY Firefighters that gave their lives at the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, when it collapsed. A few of their offspring had just graduated from NY Fire Academy. Steve thought it was noteworthy and a news item. At the time of the notice, only three of our readers had actually read the post. Only three.
Higbee and Associates sued us a second time over that (we had previously settled on an earlier one for FAR less than demanded – and we thought that was the end of it). We took the picture down but claimed “Fair Use” as it really was a very short piece and hardly noticed by our readers. Made no difference to them. They saw us as an ongoing revenue stream even though our yearly budget is not much more than paying for hosting fees and licenses (software and subscriptions with some equipment purchases – we have no payroll (and they couldn’t believe that so many of our volunteers wrote so much in being volunteers).
So, we paraphrased what was said about the Barbary Coast Pirates (re: US Marine Hymn “…to the shores of Tripoli…”): “thousands for defense, not a cent for tribute” and told them we’d see them in court. After a bit of back and forth by Grokster Norm (a lawyer) with their representative, we haven’t heard from them since July of 2021. Nada, Nein, Nuttin’.
You folks helped us raise enough to be in the 5-digit level. And with that, we did search out and find an Intellectual Property lawyer that was willing to take the case IF Higbee had decided to proceed. I believe that they reconsidered the merits of their case, the cost of that future case, and that the probability of winning that case wasn’t worth the upfront cost. But that’s just me thinking -I’m not a lawyer. All I know is that we haven’t heard back from them since that time.
And most importantly, we have not spent a dime of that money – it’s still in the bank. Unlike another advocacy group that I’ve written about in the past – fundraise for one thing but spent it on another…and another…and another – we’ve honored your donations. After all, you all gave it to us for one and ONLY one purpose – defending GraniteGrok.
The question is now – what to do with it with that one purpose seemingly not going to happen?
Like I how I conducted my duties when I was on the Gilford Budget Committee, I never thought that taxpayer monies were “our” money to spend. Instead, it was to spent, not as elected government officials, but as fellow taxpayers taking in the entire range of people in town (from the Governors Island type folks to those in trailer parks). In short, frugally and wisely. Not mine to spend unless necessary.
Same thing here; we haven’t had to spend that legal defense money you gave us. We have it but I still have the outlook that it isn’t “ours” but “yours”. The obvious questions arise given that, seemingly, the “purpose” is not relevant any more:
- Would you want it back?
- Should we ask if we can spend it for another purpose with permission?
For instance, should we use it to enhance GraniteGrok (example: we sorely need a better Search capability as in “I know it’s in here SOMEWHERE!!!” searches can be infuriating in trying to find specific stuff within our over 47,000 posts? Or help in building our Grok App for which other money has been donated?
Or something far different – a Political Action Committee, separate from GraniteGrok itself (but aligned with our values we’ve built up over the last 17 years) that would defend those candidates that fit our profile and go after those that don’t? Sort of a riff from one of the US Marines’ unofficial mottos: “No better friend, no worse enemy“? We often write that way – we’re thinking it might be a good time to be able to add some “helping hands” or “teeth” to what we write about. A good example would be those candidates that were under fire by Sununu simple because of petty, political revenge motives.
And yes, something else different as well – some of the actions of such a proposed PAC would go towards our “advocacy/investigative” work – like when we issue Right To Know demands and the Government entities receiving them don’t wish to honor them (I can think of a couple already in that bucket). This would allow us to MAKE them “Follow The Law” when they believe they are above the Law. I actually have a growing number of ideas with this.
Thus far, Steve and I have just spitballed this idea. I will tell you that more than a few folks have already asked if we would form such a PAC, especially for the latter activity.
So, I want to get “a feel” from all of our readers – what do you think? What would you want done with that money?
UPDATE 4: It’s been a few days but I can now announce that we have started to look for a copyright lawyer. Why now and not earlier?
You, our readers, have been generous beyond belief. Truly, I didn’t know that so many of you felt so strongly about GraniteGrok to send us, in large and small amounts, your financial resources. I’m floored. I’m flabbergasted to be truthful. But most of all, I’m grateful in that so many of you believe that we are doing the right things and writing about the right stuff. It is confirmation of the theory that if we stayed Consistent to Principles and hectored (ok, made sport of) those that don’t, we’d have an audience of like minded folks.
We’re over $7,900 with another $1,300 (from cash and checks sent to me) in the process of uploading to Paypal. We were told we’d need between $5,000 and $10,000 just to get started – we have a total of $9,200 and that’s enough. Grokster Norm, being a lawyer, has started the process of researching for the kind of copyright lawyer that would best serve GraniteGrok. Several of you folks have written in to offer your services – we’ll be adding you into the mix as well.
We’ll keep you informed. Thank you for making our fight YOUR fight as well!
UPDATE 3: My plan is to keep updating this post every couple of das or when “an event” makes it worthy to do so. At this point, we are homing in on $7,000. Better yet, we’ve started our search for a Copyright litigator.
We’ve had some offers to represent us. We thank them and are including them into the mix. We obviously want to be careful with our pick – one, we want someone that can bring the fight to this troll AND we don’t want to make a mistake and waste your generous donations.
Please know that we’ve started the process of reaching out to our legal friends to be able to evaluate options. Once again, we really do appreciate the outpouring of support from you all.
Except, I dryly note, Bruce Currie the Bernie-bro who seems to be all over having our wealth forcibly redistributed by Government but hasn’t seen fit (that I’ve seen thus far) to voluntarily give to this platform so he can continue to act as a true Marxist missionary. I wonder why that is, Bruce?
UPDATE 2: Thanks to you all, we’ve now hit just a tad under $6,000 of the $5-10K we’ve been told we need to engage a Copyright Lawyer to defend ourselves against Higbee & Associates in their copyright trolling attempt. We’ve removed ALL images from GraniteGrok except thosethat come from Royalty Free sites and those that we know to be “our images” – there will not be a repeat of this kind of financial attack.
UPDATE 1: Steve has shown that GraniteGrok’s ranking within the State has zoomed these last couple of years, our comment section has been buzzing (er, like a jet engine heading for max thrust), and that we’re getting more and more submissions and tips, but the outpouring of support by the attack of this copyright troll has me humbled.
Just over the weekend, with your donations via Paypal ( You can Donate here) and what I think is coming in by paper checks, it looks like we will have met the lower limit of the estimate for getting a copyright IP lawyer. That’s just to get started – we’re going into an uncharted area for us. But one thing is for sure – all you folks love GraniteGrok and we Groksters appreciate it!
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An explanation now and an ask below. The explanation is that, very soon, ALL of the images that we use to make your reading experience better will be gone; we have no choice. Videos, audio files, PDFs, charts, and the like will also be removed (but only temporarily, we hope).
In every instance, any third-party content we shared, was for educational or informational purposes only and clearly within fair use provisions of the Copyright Law. Unfortunately, we cannot even afford to defend that position so it is in our best interest to clean out the media library and verify without a doubt that content is shareable, royalty-free, our property, or we have permission to use it. Why?
There is a firm out there by the name of Higbee & Associates that is colloquially called a “copyright troll” law firm. They go scouring through the Internet looking for sites that they claim have used images created by their clients and threaten to sue them for copyright infringement. Such an infringement can cost up to $150,000. Most folks, in the past, have simply asked that we just remove their image and we have done so in the past and done it quickly- and apologized. Our intention is to NEVER infringe on other peoples’ rights.
However, these guys won’t allow us to apologize and delete the image. They just say “pay this amount or we’ll sue”.
The problem for us is that even if we are checking that an image is copyrighted, it is hard to tell – often, there is no “metadata” present to let us know that it is copyrighted and thus, off-limits.
We’ve already been through this with them once and they demanded a sum pretty much what our yearly budget is (which is mostly taken up by hosting charges).
We did negotiate and got a lower amount than what was demanded. At first, they didn’t want to – they couldn’t believe that we didn’t have any payroll, that we were all volunteers, and that our site looked so professional.
They were convinced that with so many authors that some of them were getting compensated for it. They could not believe none of them were.
They also could not believe that we don’t use a checking account – only Paypal (why not – all of the few vendors we use accept it). But we paid a negotiated price even given that we are poor as church mice.
Well, they’ve hit us again so I’m clearing out our Media Library so that we can’t be hit again. Actions like this, I can do.
I can’t even pay for this second threat to avoid a lawsuit. So, while we always shared under a presumption of fair use in the past there will be no more pictures/images going forward unless we know they are “free” or taken by ourselves.
The Ask: I have been told that to hire a copyright lawyer will cost (start?) between $5,000 and $10,000. It’s a big ask, a REAL big ask. And it will be the only ask of this type I’ll ever do.
We don’t have it so we need to fundraise it. You can Donate here. There are also instructions to donate by check if PayPal is not your thing either.
As all of you know, the Grok is one of the very few conservative voices in our state, and it would be a shame if we are silenced by a bunch of copyright trolls who could put us out of business.
We appreciate any support you can provide.