My $420 Story on Beating a Copyright Troll Went Viral in a Week!
A nice surprise when I returned from vacation
Iāve just returned from my holiday in Suffolk to find July is my best month on Medium ever, because a single story that I submitted just before I left has earnt over $420 while Iāve been away.
The story follows a blogger who was sued for using a Creative Commons image without full accreditation. It's interesting because this case made it to court, while many such cases are settled out of court.
However, once in court, this case was dismissed by the Judge.
Why was it dismissed? The person who filed the lawsuit had had very little success making money from photographic sales. Instead, he was making most of his money by suing people who use his Creative Commons images without proper accreditation. (source)
People who pursue lawsuits in this manner are known as ācopyright trollsā and they often rely on out of court settlements of make their money.
The photographer argued that he lost out on sales and revenues because of the bloggerās failure to credit the image properly, but the court didnāt agree. It appears that he was unable to demonstrate significant loss, so the case was dismissed.
